They Were Meant For Each Other
by JMolover13
Summary: Sequel to "If They Can't Have Each Other They Will Never Be Happy." 12 years after the epilogue Ruby is still young while all her friends have aged. Regina and Emma have five good grown and growing kids, one of them in love with Ruby. Will Ruby find her happy ending?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Okay, as I said in "They Can Date Each Other," this is going to be Ellie-centric, but I will gladly write another segment about each of the kiddos being born or picking up right where the epilogue left off in "If They Can't Have Each Other Then They Will Never Be Happy." But I need to know that that is what you want! Hope you enjoy!**

As the years went by, Ruby watched everyone grow a little older. She watched her friends get a little grey around the edges, and a little crow's feet around the eyes. But she stayed the same. Life of a fae, she guessed. She was going to get to live on and on. It was a little sad. She was going to stay young; a common wish for people and she possesses it. But what's the fun of staying young if there's no one to stay young with?

She watched the twins and Hunter and Billie grow. She watched Regina and Emma love and adore their children, if not embarrass them at every opportunity. She watched them as they raised five amazing kids.

Henry graduated and got that big-person job he'd feared at the newly instated Storybrooke University. He was one of the 'favorite' professors in his department and taught some of the cooler classes, like "Magic and the Human" or "Differences Between the Dark and Light: There Are None" things of that nature. Ruby also saw him fall in love, and saw his moms fall in love with his love and the rest of the kids immediately accept Brendon into their home. She got to officiate their wedding and everything; she was proud about that one.

She watched Billie grow from a happy baby to a preteen with the wit and strength of both her mothers, the grace and elegance of her brunette mother and the natural charisma of her blonde mother. She watched as Billie fell in love with dancing and became well versed in all forms she could possibly learn.

She watched Hunter grow to look like a carbon copy of Reid—ergo his brunette mother. She watched him fall in love with music, and like his older sisters, school. She watched him turn into quite the guitarist, giving youtube sensation Sungha Jung a run for his money. At fourteen, with his looks and guitar-playing ability, she knew that he should have a new girlfriend a week, but he was a very shy young man. And she found that even cuter, though she said nothing knowing it would embarrass him.

She watched Daisy and Ellie grow. She watched them gain magical ability and have to learn how to use it when they turned 18. And she watched them become brilliant young witches in a small span of time before heading off to college. The twins were 20 now. Both in college, Daisy went to the Enchanted Forest, Eastern U, for culture and freedom, and Ellie opted for Storybrooke U.

Daisy had long, flowing, golden hair like her blonde mother. She was going to graduate a year early with a degree in fashion design and open her own business down the street from the music shop. She wanted to cater to each and every type of style, like for instance, her sister's style, or men that wore dresses. She wanted people to be able to come in and buy whatever the hell they wanted and have the stuff they buy actually fit to their body. She had also, apparently found love. Though she's refused to let him come to Storybrooke in fear that her mothers will embarrass her and him both. Or scare him off.

Then there was Ellie. Ellie had a pixie-cut like her grandmother, but it was much more choppy and spunky. She stayed in town to help out. With everything. She helped at the music shop when Hunter was sick or in a writing music mode and didn't leave his room. She worked mainly at the station with her blonde mother, helping in any way she could to make Emma's paper work a little more readable and organized so her grandfather wouldn't have to rag on her. She helped at the diner at every possible moment too—especially during their peak seasons. She was double majoring in Biology and Criminal Justice. She knew that she should logically just opt for Criminal Justice, but something inside of her wanted to become a doctor. On top of the double major, she minored in Business, giving a bunch of tips to Ruby and Granny for the diner and inn—though if asked, she didn't take the courses just to help with them, she took the courses so she could know the ins and outs of a business.

Ruby secretly observed Ellie grow into the woman she was today. She was beautiful, but she would never tell anyone that because it felt icky. Watching your best friend's daughter grow up and think she's hot? It just sounds icky even if she was now said daughter's age instead of the parents. She knew that Ellie had had a crush on her growing up; it was hard not to know considering the girl used to adapt her wardrobe into a variation of the person she was dating at the time. She actually had one boyfriend or girlfriend a year for the last twelve years due to encouragement from her friends and Granny, and Ellie changed herself every time. Though over the last year, Ellie had completely rejected adapting to her boyfriend, Mason, and was dressing much like she did before Ruby started dating again.

Mason was when Ruby assumed that Ellie's crush finally resolved itself. Ellie didn't talk a lot after Mason came about and she never stayed late except to clean up when she helped at the diner and inn. Ruby had assumed that Ellie was over her.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie was far from over Ruby. It's just that Mason was a dick. He was a jackass-douche-bag-bitch-face that didn't deserve Ruby; and Ellie knew she had no place to barge into Ruby's love life and tell him to go away. So, she went away. She couldn't stand seeing him be the ultra-douche he was to Ruby and cause ruckus and always gain peoples attention when he yelled. There was a difference between what he did and what her mother's did when they fought; her mother's fought about what was for dinner, he would tell Ruby that she looked like a slut and when she dared to cover the thing he was harping on, the next time, he'd ask her if she was moving to a convent. Everyone was in agreement on Mason being a jackass and no one knew why Ruby stayed with him.

Ruby wasn't even sure half the time. He was just the closest that ever came to making her feel loved—of course it was when it was just the two of them and he was being a sad drunk apologizing for how he acted, but he was still the only one. He never touched her, or threatened her; but he was not a good person and he didn't know how to treat a lady.

Ellie had gone to the station to let Tiny and Leroy out—they'd had a little too much fun at the beanstalk the night before. After giving them some aspirin, she sent them on their way and headed for the diner for brunch with Daisy, Billie, Hunter and her moms. It was the first full day of Daisy being home for summer vacation and the moms wanted to make it special.

She took in a deep breath as she saw Jackass McGee walk up the steps to the diner. And she sighed it out when she saw Ruby walk out with a towel and tray to clean the porch tables. She was at an impasse. She knew that she could magic her way into the diner and avoid them completely, but something told her to stick to her human side and trudge forth.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Billie was the first to see Mason walking up the steps and Ruby walk outside.

"Oh, brother." She shook her head.

"What?" Hunter looked at her and after receiving a point for an answer, he turned to find what everyone else at the table was now staring at, "Oh, brother." He repeated before turning back to the women in the family, "How long will it take Ellie to release Tiny and Leroy?"

"Not to long…" Daisy said.

"How do you know? You don't know the new procedures they have to go through. Ellie's learned that they can't just release them, there's paperwork and stuff now too…"

"Well, I know because she's walking across the street…" Daisy looked at her brother.

Hunter turned and looked out the window to see his other sister and back to the table, "Oh."

"They're gonna get in a fight." Billie commented, still staring at the couple rather than her sister.

"Who?" Granny came and filled coffee mugs and set cocoas down.

"Your granddaughter and her boyfriend…" Regina answered.

"I don't like him." Granny grunted before walking to the back of the kitchen.

"What is the count for the week?" A random person in the diner asked as no one masked where their attention was.

"I think it's four for four." Snow's voice came through.

Emma, Regina and the clan turned to see the voice of the schoolteacher, "Mom, Dad…" Emma started as her parents got up and walked over to hug their grandchildren, "Why didn't you tell me you were here? Why are you not sitting with us?"

"Your father and I thought we'd give you this time with the family alone and we'd come by for dinner like planned, but we wanted to come say 'hi'…"

"Hi." The family said collectively before they were interrupted by the show outside.

Ruby slapped Mason's face, "FINE! LEAVE! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I DO! WE'RE OVER! I HATE YOU!"

Mason laughed at her and grabbed her roughly, pulling her in for what would be a mind-numbing kiss between Emma and Regina, but was obviously forced and kind of gross between the younger two.

Billie grabbed her grandmother's hand on her shoulder and her sister's arm as a knee-jerk reaction, "What's Ellie gonna do?"

"I don't know." Daisy shook her head.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie heard the degrading things he said about Ruby to her face and it took everything inside her to stand there and not do anything. But as she watched him catch-22 her into kissing him and as she heard his words when he pulled away, she couldn't handle it anymore.

"No one kisses back if they truly hate someone. Even sluts like you." That was all he could get in before he was interrupted by getting tapped on the shoulder. "What?!" He turned around annoyed with whoever had the gall to interrupt him, but instead of getting an answer, he received Ellie's fist in his mouth. He, with his overdramatic jackassery, waited a moment or two as he touched his lip and saw crimson on his finger after pulling it away. He looked up to find the little bitch that everyone seemed to adore and followed Ruby around like a puppy. "You little twerp!" He didn't hesitate to punch back. She started it after all.

The two shoved and turned each other, knocking over chairs and tables as they tried to dominate the fight.

"STOP! MASON! STOP!" Ruby yelled frozen to her spot as she watched Ellie throw him on the ground, "ELLIE! PLEASE! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

~0~0~0~0~0~

"That does it." Charming slammed his coffee mug on the table and made to move outside after the brawl started.

"Dad! Don't you even think about going out there." Emma gave him a stern look.

"Are you gonna stop 'em?" He asked.

Emma took Regina's hand, "Yes, dad, we're all over it." She rolled her eyes as if a teenager before her wife poofed them outside.

~0~0~0~0~0~

As Emma pulled her gun from her belt, Mason gained dominance and was about to start wailing on Ellie, who was giving as good as she got. Emma held the gun a moment and let Regina wave magic over it before she aimed and shot the young man in the back, causing him to immediately freeze.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"She just shot him!" Snow said.

"It doesn't hurt, Grandma." Hunter looked to the pixie-cut woman.

"And how do you know?"

"Because Mom and Momma were trying it on each other then on us before deciding it would be safe to use in moments like this…"

"It gives you a funny feeling all over while your frozen." Billie said with a giggle. As she looked up at her shocked and dismayed grandparents, "I wanted to know what it felt like… Momma's not that good at explaining… And they didn't use the actual gun on us. They used Hunter's old nerf guns. Same thing."

Daisy leaned to her sister, "Yeah… maybe we shouldn't ever talk to our grandparents and the people that run this town about our moms and how they shoot at us with anything gun related… Just consider that for next time." She also looked pointedly to her brother.

Billie gave her older sister a look before relenting and nodding. Hunter just gave the blonde a cheeky, apologetic smile.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Regina flicked her wrist as soon as Ellie squirmed from beneath the brute and a shield went up around him preventing her daughter from hurting him.

Ellie at first did not see the shield. She began kicking and punching before she realized she wasn't actually coming in contact with his body. She looked up to her mothers. "Take the shield down, Mom!" She yelled.

"Ellie." Regina's tone was soft, a tear forming in her eye as she surveyed her broken-hearted, over-protective daughter.

"TAKE it down! I'll take down myself!" Ellie threatened and lightning soon began to crackle between her fingers.

"No, my love." She quickly barreled the steps down to her daughter.

Emma moved to Ruby and placed a protective, friendly hand on her non-aging best friend's shoulder.

Ellie could no longer control her emotions; in this moment, she was crying, angry, huffing, puffing. Regina took her face and they stared at each other. "Take it down…" Ellie tried, "Take it down…" She looked over to Ruby, who was all kinds of shocked and confused and many other emotions that she took as dismayed and disgusted, "Take… Take…Take me home." She whispered to her mother.

Regina held her daughter close; she didn't hesitate and poofed the two of them back home.

Emma walked down to the man and clapped his shoulder, unfreezing him, before quickly cuffing him, "Let's take a stroll to the station. You can stay there the rest of the day."

"You can't just do that!"

"Who's gonna stop me? I'm the Sheriff, dim wit, and that was my kid you just fought with and my best friend you just fucked with. We'll put it under disturbing the peace." She shrugged as she walked with him, but turned around, "Daisy!"

Daisy ran outside, "Yes, Momma?"

"Can you help Ruby out the rest of the day? Maybe Grams and Gramps can take your brother and sister home after everything calms down…?" she looked inside to see them both nod telling her they would.

"Okay, Momma." Daisy flicked her wrist and was sporting an apron. She walked down and escorted Ruby back inside while Emma escorted Mason across the street.

Ruby sat down next to Billie, taking Daisy's seat. Snow and Charming took their daughter and daughter-in-law's places and Daisy gave the patrons all a glare that could rival her brunette mother's telling them to turn back to their places. She began mulling about, taking orders and refilling drinks like she was an old pro.

Ruby sat and stared out the window. She was looking where Ellie stood with Regina before they poofed. Finally, after playing the whole event over for the umpteenth time, she sighed and said, "What the hell was that?"

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


	2. Chapter 2

Regina poofed Ellie and herself to her and Emma's bathroom. She sat Ellie on the covered toilet before opening Emma's side of the medicine cabinet and getting the ingredients she needed for mending her daughter's beat up face, hands and the probable scrapes she'd acquired from wearing only a t-shirt while getting tossed around on the ground—she knew that everyone would tell her that her baby girl was giving as good as she got, but she only saw her baby girl get tossed around on the ground.

The only sounds made were the mixing of the potions, Regina's trying to form a sentence, and Ellie's heavy breathing. When Regina caught her daughter's wet eyes, the younger brunette turned from her, wiped her eyes then bloodied lip and nose with her sleeve. Regina looked sadly at her daughter as she walked over with the solution.

"This is going to help with the cuts and road rash, but not the bruising or the swelling."

"'Kay." Ellie said as she let her mother lift her face to the light and begin cleaning and wiping away the dried blood and healing the split in her lip.

"Stand." Regina gestured her daughter to stand in front of her and lean over the counter, "Shirt." She directed, telling her daughter to take her shirt off so she could get the road rash she knew was going to be everywhere. That Mason character did not go light with her.

Ellie pulled her shirt up around her neck, but felt stinging where it rested and decided to take it off completely.

"Why did you do that?" Regina asked as she looked at her daughter's back, "I mean, of all the things you could have done. You walked up and punched him?"

"He made her cry." Ellie looked down and bit her newly healed lip. "Over and over. He's repeatedly made her cry." She shrugged, "I was tired of it. Figured if he had something real to complain about then he'd stop with her."

Regina stared at her daughter a moment. She watched Ellie scratch the back of her head and shake her bangs from her eyes as she refused to look her in the mirror. She took a hesitant breath, "Ellie, my darling?"

"Hm?" She grunted, looking down, waiting for her mother to wipe her back clean and heal the road rash.

"Why Ruby? Why has it always been Ruby? Why can no one else come close or even compare?"

Ellie didn't like to talk about her crush, which it wasn't at this point. At this point it was unrequited love. She felt the lump form quickly in her throat. Instead of swallowing it, she shrugged and choked around it, "She ruffles my feathers… I mean, why Momma?"

Regina smiled and nodded, "Alright." She nodded as she began cleaning and wiping the serum over Ellie's back.

"You know that even though she's your age and not your mother's and my ages, that she still thinks of all of you as kids?"

"Mom…" Ellie tried to push from her mother, but was stopped.

"I'm not done with your back." She said softly, "And I'm sorry, but I'm just… Your mother and I are worried about you…"

"Worried about what?" She looked up into the mirror finally.

"Everything. You and Daisy… you two are vastly different. You can die your hair and change clothes and look the same, but you are completely different. You are a person that makes sure everything and everyone is all right and you have no time for yourself. You do nothing that is just you. Your sister has no problem doing things for her." Regina grinned at her blonde twin's many antics as they ran through her head. She looked up at her brunette twin, "We wish you would do something that is for you. You help me at the shop. You work with your mother at the station. You're getting your degree in Criminal Justice to pursue a career I don't think you want. And you're getting a minor to help the girl that sees you as a little rascal rather than the beautiful young woman you are…"

"I'm getting a double major."

"Yeah, Biology. What's going to come of that?"

"An M.D. maybe." Ellie looked back down.

"An M.D.?" Regina looked at her daughter, "Really?"

"I think I'd make a good surgeon."

Regina had tears in her eyes as her daughter finally shared with her why she was getting that degree. She'd been told by other people, but not by Ellie herself. She smiled and nodded, "I think you'd make a good surgeon too." She looked intently at her daughter, "You don't have to get that minor or the other degree, you know. If you want to be a surgeon then you need to concentrate on that."

"No, I need to keep them."

"Why?"

Ellie turned away from her mother and headed for the door, "It's like you said. Me and Daisy are different. Daisy gets what she wants. She has the plan, she's almost done with her degree, she's got the committed relationship. I… don't. I need to keep the second degree and the minor because I don't get what I want. I'm in love with a girl that thinks of me as a little rascal. It's all like you said, and I know that." She tapped the doorway once before walking out of her mothers' room and walking to her own.

She kicked herself out of her pants and into a pair of cutoff flannels before tenderly lying on the bed. She looked at the sun coming through the branches of the tree just outside her window, and played the entire morning over in her head right up to her last words before her mother knocked on the door and cautiously walked in.

"How long have you left like this?"

Ellie didn't answer.

"Honey…"

"A while."

"Why didn't you say anything to anyone?"

"Because I don't need to."

"You don't need to?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because the way I see it, there's always one person in the family that doesn't do right, one person that doesn't get what they want. One ugly duckling, or swan-ling per family. Henry's a college professor with a husband, Daisy's gonna have her own store to run her own fashion from, Hunter's got music, and Billie has dance. I have to help out. I'm fine with the life I've been given. It's better then yours or momma's growing up, and that's all you guys wanted right?"

"Darling, we want you to be happy."

Ellie shrugged, "I'm okay."

"That's not happy."

She shrugged again, "It's not completely unhappy."

"What would make you happy?" Regina asked.

Ellie looked down, "My love to be requited." She shrugged, "That's the only thing I really, really want. I don't need the dream job or anything really. I just want her to love me."

Regina's eyes were brimming with tears. She scooted onto her daughter's bed and held her close, "I know that my love means nothing in that sense, but I do love you. And your mother loves you."

"I know." Ellie nodded as she settled into her mother's arms and felt the tears take over her eyes.

"You want her to love you."

"Yeah."

Regina kissed her daughter's forehead and held her tighter if that were possible. "You were very knightly today."

Ellie thought about it, "No I wasn't."

"You weren't?"

"No… I just walked up to a guy and punched him because he was with the girl I want. I wasn't fighting for her. I was fighting him off of her for some nonexistent hope of selfish gain…" She looked down. "I need to apologize to her."

"No you don't."

"Yeah, Mom… I was an ass."

"No one saw it that way."

"Well, I won't have a clean conscious until I do."

"What am I supposed to tell your mother?"

"That I'm apologizing to her?"

"You know how she's going to react to that. She's going to follow you there and become that domineering, overprotective beast that she turns into because she's knows that something that you feel that drives you to physical violence has caused so much inner turmoil that there's hardly anything left."

"How does she know that?" Ellie asked, "How do you know that?"

"We're your mothers. We know inner turmoil and we know fighting… and each other's right hooks pretty well."

"You and Momma got in a fight?"

Regina chuckled, "Two. In the first year she came."

"The year of which we do not speak."

"Yes. One I started at my father's grave and the other she started at the hospital."

"The hospital?"

"Yes. Henry ate the poisoned tart I'd made for your mother."

"You were gonna poison Momma?"

"I was the evil queen. It was long ago. We've come far beyond that time. We don't speak of it for a reason."

Ellie looked back at her mother, "Well, maybe we won't speak of this day for a reason one day too." The young witch said, "I'm gonna go apologize when she's cleaning after closing. But right now I'm kind of tired."

"Yes, that's a side effect of that healing ointment." Regina said as she stayed there a while longer, "Is it okay if I stay in here with you a while?" She asked as she watched her daughter set her phone alarm.

"Yeah. Maybe you can tell me more about the year of which we do not speak until I fall asleep?"

Regina smiled, "Okay." She spoke in a soft tone as her daughter cuddled against her side—something she hadn't done in over a decade. Her voice was soft, "Henry ran away from home. The curse prevented me from or anyone else from leaving. I was worried out of my mind; despite what he thought, I did love him. I heard the putter of your mother's Beetle and ran to the door. Of course no one in town drove a Beetle and that only meant that she was someone from out of town. She was going to ruin the curse. I knew that all in just hearing the car pull up and park. I ran outside, tried to hug Henry, but he pushed me away and told me he found his real mom. Then I saw your mother for the first time. She was in that damn leather jacket…"

"You love her jackets."

"I pretended to hate them for quite some time."

"Because she was supposed to be your enemy?"

"Yes."

"But you loved her right from the start, didn't you?"

"Yes. But she couldn't _know_ _that_. She was intimidating and a nuisance. She was a threat to the world I'd created and thought I wanted. The world I thought I could live with. But I think she loved me too when she first saw me. She wouldn't stop staring at me; though I took that as a challenge and stared right back. She made me want to pull out every hair on my head one by one. But one day two years later, she stalked into my office and told me that she wanted to take me on a date. That she liked me a lot and wanted to explore her feelings."

"You said no because she couldn't know you loved her."

Regina nodded, "I said no because she couldn't know I loved her."

"And she kept coming at you."

"Yes. She gave me that fake red rose in our room and told me she would love me until it died by natural means and I couldn't set it on fire."

"It's never gonna die."

"That was her point."

"Momma's a big romantic."

"Yes she is."

"You are too."

"Yes I am." Regina stroked her hair as she listened to her daughter's breath quickly even out. "You need to leave before your mother gets home this evening." She whispered aloud, "If you think you're going to go apologize for nothing, that is.."

Ellie mumbled in her sleep and turned from her mother. Regina stood and moved quietly to the door.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie woke with her alarm and went to her bathroom. She jumped back at her darkened eye and swollen cheek, but quickly took it in and shook it off. She fixed her choppy hair and snapped her fingers so that she was wearing a light grey vest and jeans, a dark shirt and a red tie with a leather jacket that would rival any of her mother's for awesomeness. She looked out the window and saw her blonde mother's car driving down the street, so she opted to travel by poof.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma walked inside, "Where's Ellie?" the blonde asked the two of her children in the living room as soon as she walked in.

"She was sleeping last I heard." Hunter said.

Regina had given Billie and Hunter the skinny on what was happening and told them not to tell Emma anything until the next day. They decided not to get involved, or as not involved as they possibly could.

Emma nodded once before she climbed the stairs two at a time. Regina was shutting the door to their daughter's room, "She still sleeping?"

"She's uh…" Regina watched her wife push passed her and into the room.

"Where is she?"

"She and Daisy went out. Daisy decided that Ellie had some obvious steam to let off, so she wanted to take her out so they could have twin time."

"You say 'twin time' like it's a thing."

Regina shrugged, "They've always said it like it's a thing…"

Emma accepted that and took her wife's hand, "I'm worried about her, that's all."

"I know. She's going to be fine. I think."

"You think?"

Regina pursed her lips, "Let's go to our bedroom and talk… Hunter and Billie don't need to hear." Emma knit her brows but nodded nonetheless.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie poofed to the line of her neighborhood. She wanted to compile what she was going to say, but couldn't think of anything the entire walk there. She stood outside for a few minutes as she watched her sister say goodbye before she started ascending the steps to the door.

Daisy was taken aback by Ellie's face as much as much as Ellie was. "Jeez. Your face is disgusting. Like mom's old lovers coming back from the dead via Frankenstein kind of disgusting… But I guess it could have been worse."

"Yes, and that waitress's uniform you have on looks amazing, which is odd considering the amount of true work you've ever done in your life." Ellie sarcastically grinned at her sister.

Their tones weren't harsh, only teasing. Daisy quickly turned serious. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"I'm fine."

Daisy knew when her sister was bullshitting. But she's been bullshitting her love life their whole life. And she knew when not to mess with Ellie; now was definitely a time not to mess with her. "Okay. What are you doing here?"

"Apologizing."

"For what? Coming to Ruby's defense?" Daisy was a little confused.

"She didn't need me. I shouldn't have taken it upon myself to try to solve her problems that were obviously going away on their own."

Daisy's tone turned sympathetic, "Ellie…"

"What?"

The blonde twin rolled her eyes, "You don't need to apologize for what you did. It was honorable, noble even."

Ellie shook her head, "It was butting into someone else's business. I didn't have a right to butt into." She looked in to see Ruby looking anywhere but their way with her ears perked; the other brunette was definitely listening with her wolf-senses.

Daisy was turned from the other brunette and didn't even think about Ruby being able to hear her. "When are you going to tell her how in love with her you are? It's hard on all of us. Not just you, you know? We hate seeing you every time she starts dating someone new. We hate what it does to you. How much it hurts you. She has a right to know how she makes you feel. I mean, it was cute when we were kids, but now it just hurts…"

Ellie looked down. She shook her bangs from her eyes. She knew that it was way too late to do anything about the fact that her twin just inadvertently told Ruby her deep, dark secret now, so she responded like she would have if they were completely alone, "It's always hurt. I'm a swan with ruffled feathers thanks to a wolf… It's always hurt. I've always been the vulnerable one."

"You shouldn't apologize. You should tell her that…" Daisy squeezed her sister's hand. She looked back in to see Ruby scrubbing furiously at the counter and realized her mistake, "I think I'll poof home instead of walk…"

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


	3. Chapter 3

Ellie sighed after Daisy poofed from her spot on the porch of the diner. She stared at Ruby as she scrubbed furiously at the counter, and took in a deep breath, held it, then released it as she put her hand on the door knob and slowly walked in.

"You don't have to do that." The young witch said after closing the door, walking over and sitting on the stool directly in front of the other woman.

"Do what?" The werewolf continued scrubbing.

Ellie smiled, "You don't have to wear a hole in your counter. That spot's clean. And I know it's just a cover. It's what you always do when you listen in on other people's conversations."

"I was not—"

"Yes you were." Ellie almost caught Ruby's eyes with her slightly teasing, slightly scolding tone, but Ruby was too quick to duck her head and look anywhere but at her. She continued anyways, "And yes you do listen in on the town gossip; that's why you're always in the know."

"Obviously not." Ruby still refused to look at the other girl.

"You've always known I liked you."

Ruby nodded, "I've always known you had a little crush on me, but I didn't think… Especially with everything that happened in the last year because you didn't come over or hang around as much…" She shook her head and stared at the folded hands resting on the countertop, "I'm so sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? You've done nothing wrong." Ellie had tears formed in her eyes, but her voice was strong as she tried to joke, "And you're kind of stealing my thunder. You know that's why I was coming in here…"

Ruby bit her lip and finally looked up at her, "You should listen to your sister."

"Which part? The 'don't apologize' part or the 'tell you I'm in love with you, have always been in love with you and will always be in love with you' part?"

They shared a hard stare before Ruby gave in and turned away. "You get right to the point, don't you?"

Ellie just bit her newly healed lip and nodded. Finally she said, "I am my mothers' daughter."

Ruby smiled, "You definitely are. They should be proud. You know that?"

Ellie looked down, "Well… maybe not today." She gestured to her eye and knuckles. "What with the fighting and all…"

"Does it hurt?" Ruby turned and started getting stuff for it.

Ellie stood and came around the counter, popping tenderly to sit where Ruby had been leaning, "Nah, Mom put some stuff on my hands, the cut on my face and the road rash on my back. It's just tight because of swelling."

Ruby nodded, still back-faced to Ellie knowing she had moved. She looked at the wall not knowing what to do. She had one question that had so thoroughly wrapped itself around her mind that she couldn't focus on anything else. It was a question that she'd always secretly wanted to ask, and it finally fell from her mouth, "Why me?"

"Why my moms? Or my grandparents?..." Ellie asked like it was second nature to answer in that way at this point. She was very quiet as she spoke her next question, "Or Peter?"

Ruby spun around with wide eyes, "How do you know about him?"

"Henry's book still exists even though the curse broke… I got bored when I was six and read it." She gave the older woman a sad smile.

"Then you know that I killed my one true love…" Ruby started.

"I also know that my moms debunked the theory of one true love in the case of early death." Ellie raised her brows. She pursed her lips as Ruby's mouth opened and closed a few times in search of words. She decided to speak before Ruby could in fact form the sentence she was trying to find. She sighed, "I didn't come here to argue with you or try and make you fall in love with me. I didn't even want you to find out… I wanted to apologize for making an ass of myself and thinking of myself as high and mighty and able to interrupt something that was clearly only your business. I shouldn't have done it and I'm sorry."

Ruby said nothing. She didn't turn around or give a look of any kind telling her she got the message, she didn't nod. She didn't do anything.

Ellie pushed from the counter top and stood behind the wolf-girl. "I guess… I will, uh…" She half gestured to the door before shaking her head, knowing Ruby couldn't see what she was doing and trekked her way to the door. She had her hand on the knob for a good thirty seconds as she thought about how she was leaving and she made her decision to make sure that Ruby completely understood how she felt before she left. "I do love you. I'm so in love with you, Ruby Lucas. And I'd give anything and everything to be with you. But I'd give my life if I could for once see you completely happy. Because you of all people deserve the happiness that my parents and grandparents have. I see how you've been watching them as they get older, and I see you becoming more lonely. I'd give everything I have for you to have that." She sighed a shaky breath out, "I'll leave you alone now. I won't bother you anymore." She decided that a poof was going to get her out of there faster.

Ruby turned around halfway through Ellie's speech and once she saw the beginnings of light blue smoke, her mouth got it together and she finally formed words before the girl could completely leave, "Who said you were bothering me?!" But she saw the blue smoke fade and Ellie was gone.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma was sprawled on both the couch and her wife watching "Will & Grace." Billie and Hunter were in the living room with them, though Billie was playing games on her iPad while Hunter was writing a paper for his AP Euro class.

"When do you think they'll get home?" Emma asked as she looked up to her wife who was looking at her phone for at least the hundredth time. "And what is going on with you and your phone?"

"Hm? Nothing. They'll get here when they get here." Regina said with a half smile as she set her phone on the side table next to the couch.

"Did you put up the shield so they couldn't just poof to their rooms?"

"Yes, my love, I put the shield on."

Billie looked over to them, "When I get my powers you won't have to use the shield. I'll always come through the door."

Hunter shook his head, "Suck up."

"Just because you're so much a recluse you're practically an agoraphobe!" Billie glared at her brother.

Hunter laughed, "Two vocabulary words in one sentence?"

Billie's glare turned to a grin, "I know… I'm gonna make an A on my test."

"I'll give you an A in life if you keep your vocab words in your active vocabulary instead of your passive."

"I don't know what you just said, but okay!" Billie turned back to Swampy version 4000.

"Active is what we use all the time, passive is what we know but seldom use."

Emma looked blankly at her son before she looked to her wife, "Sometimes he's too smart for his own good."

"He gets that from me." Regina laughed cockily.

Emma didn't hesitate to agree, "I know."

Regina took her wife's face, "Darling… you are brilliant."

"Not with books and stuff."

They moved closer together and spoke unintelligibly before kissing once or thrice.

Hunter and Billie looked to each other and rolled their eyes. This was when Daisy walked inside the house. Alone.

"Mom? Why did you put a shield up?" She asked as she walked into the living room. She looked up from folding her apron to her family in the room. She saw three pairs of wide-eyes and one pair of confused eyes.

"…Wait…" Emma sat up as she stared at her blonde twin trying to figure it out.

Hunter and Billie stood quickly, "I forgot I gotta…" Hunter pointed to the stairs.

"Me too." They ran upstairs only to stop at the top. They learned at a young age that if they ever wanted to know the gory details of family situations that they would have to eavesdrop at the top of the stairs.

Emma's brows hardened as she stared behind her blonde twin, waiting for her brunette twin. "Where's Ellie?"

Daisy was now the confused one, "What?"

"Ellie? Your sister? The one you lived with in my womb for nine months? Where is she? Your mother said that you took her out with you to relieve stress?"

Daisy looked to her brunette mother who had picked up her phone and was waving it around wildly behind her blonde mother. But stopped immediately once her blonde mother turned to her in question. The young blonde looked at her phone to see a text from her brunette mother: _Hey, Ellie is going to talk to Ruby. After everything your mother is in one of those overprotective, crazy, irrational moods. I told her you took her out and she hovered over my shoulder to make sure I put a shield up… Try and stay out a while?_

Daisy bit her lip as she looked back up apologetically.

"You're just now getting home from the diner." Emma spoke in a no nonsense tone.

"Sorry Mom…" Daisy said with an apologetic shrug.

"It's alright." Regina stood to get out of the scrutiny of her wife's accusatory stare, "Just… check your damn phone next time." She played with her daughter's long locks in distraction.

Emma bore holes into her wife's back, "Where's Ellie?"

Neither Regina nor Daisy said a thing. Emma, glanced to her daughter who moved to the coat closet as a way to get out of the line of fire. Emma stood and walked behind her wife. She placed a hand on the back of the brunette's neck and rubbed in what would normally be a soothing manner as she whispered in her ear, "Where's Ellie, Regina?"

Regina, never one to back down from a challenge, turned around and stared her wife straight in the eyes, "I can honestly say that she is not here or the shop or the station."

Emma crossed her arms, "Well, I know she's not at the station, _darling_, that's where I've been all day with the jackass." Emma moved to the coat closet like her daughter, but instead of putting a coat up, she took hers out, "I'm feeling a sundae. Billie? Hunter?" She called up the stairs knowing they were eavesdropping, "You guys want one?"

Billie and Hunter stared at one another then meekly called, "No." at the same time.

Emma, knowing her kids would never say no to a sundae unless they had damn good reason not to, glared to her wife, "Regina!" She snapped angrily.

"Parlay!" Regina yelped, knowing Emma was about to lose it, "I invoke the right to parlay!" Emma glared harder and grabbed her wife's hand then Regina poofed them to their room, sound proofed it and locked the door.

Emma, coat still in hand threw it on the bed and began pacing, "Start talking, Lucy."

Regina paused and stared at her, "Darling, that's not even close to the right phrase."

Emma stopped and whipped her head, curls flying haphazardly, "Regina Maria Swan." She said in a deadly tone.

"Middle names and no Mills hyphen? You're that mad?" Regina asked. She got no response but her wife's body seeming to tense even further. "Ricky, what is Lucy explaining first?"

"Don't do that." Emma said seriously, "Don't try to cute your way out of it."

"Okay!" Regina had her hands up in surrender, "What do you want me to talk about first?"

"Lying to me."

"Darling you know I've been lying to you. Why do you let me when you know otherwise?" Regina received nothing again, "Okay, I've been lying because Ellie wanted to go to the diner to apologize and after what we talked about this afternoon…" She shrugged, "I wasn't about to stop her."

"She's at the diner?! With Ruby? Alone? Every time she goes there and they spend even five minutes alone together, she comes home crushed! How could you let her go after what happened today? And what the hell does she have to apologize for?"

"She thinks she wasn't being chivalrous and was only acting in self interest." Regina answered, "And as for letting her go talk to Ruby alone… I had to. She has your determination and even though I know keeping her here would have protected her from heartache, maybe now she'll understand. Get it through her head that Ruby doesn't like her in that way and start looking for love elsewhere. She's not going to stop until some greater force makes her… She's you in that aspect. She's you in every aspect actually."

Emma shook her head, "She shouldn't be there. I need to stop her. That kind of pain… it's the worst imaginable."

"She has to figure it out for herself. Besides, if something comes of anything, Ruby will be gracious. She won't kick her when she's down."

"No, I suppose she won't…" Emma finally gave up and plopped on the bed.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"What the hell does that mean?"

Ruby jumped at the words, not sensing Ellie had only poofed behind her instead of home. She turned and stared at the slightly taller brunette.

"'Who said you were bothering me?' What does that mean?" Ellie asked again after a tense moment of anticipated hope.

"It means that you're not bothering me." Ruby tried to play it cool. All of her forbidden thoughts rushed to the forefront of her mind. Every time she wanted to make a moment more than it should have been, every hug that she wanted to turn to a kiss, every time she really saw how beautiful Ellie really was—especially as of late. She took in a ragged, nervous breath, "You coming to my rescue or giving me business tips from those classes of yours… You don't bother me. If anything, you're a comfort."

"A comfort?" Ellie whispered out. She could sense that something deeper was coming, and she hoped that it was everything she ever wanted.

"Yeah. You make me feel comfortable and safe. You make me laugh. You don't need to worry if I'm happy; I _am_ happy. When I'm around you, I feel happy."

Ellie took a hopeful chance; she grabbed the back of Ruby's neck and pulled her in for a single kiss.

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


	4. Chapter 4

Their kiss intensified, Ellie kept one hand on Ruby's neck and jaw, keeping her in place and the other wound around her waist clinging tight. Ruby, in response, wrapped both arms around Ellie's neck, causing the younger woman to drop the hand on her face and move it to her lower back, daringly skimming the top of her ass.

This is when the thought of, 'Oh my gods, I'm kissing Ellie Swan (secret exclamation point!).' changed to, 'Oh my God, I'm _kissing_ Ellie Swan. Emma and Regina's _daughter_.' She pulled from the taller girl, more like pushed the taller girl away, "This…" She sucked in quick succinct breaths as she caught hers, "This isn't right. This isn't how things should be. I mean, your moms—Good gods your moms!" She turned and put her hands on the counter mainly to keep them off of the other girl, "They're my best friends! Do you know what they would say if they knew _this_ happened? Let alone a whole relationship!?"

Ellie pursed her lips and looked at the ceiling in thought, "Finally? Thank God?" she spoke deadpan.

Ruby stamped her foot against the tile, hit Ellie's arm and whined, "Ellie!"

"What?" Ellie was grinning ear to ear as she watched the many emotions plague Ruby's face. Each one was one she'd seen Ruby give girlfriends, boyfriends or the people she flirted with. None of them had ever been directed at her.

"I'm serious." Ruby crossed her arms and stared at the taller girl.

Ellie nodded, relenting, "I know…" she paused, "But so am I."

"So are you? You think your moms are going to come running in here and start hugging me because I'm kissing you now?"

"No, I think they'll come running in here and start hugging you because you make me happy." Ellie moved so she was leaning against the opposite counter Ruby was and observed her.

Ruby turned so she was looking at Ellie, back-faced to the counter. She pushed herself up to sit. The two had a staring contest before Ellie pushed from her leaning position and moved to stand between Ruby's legs. Ruby did not refuse Ellie that spot either, in fact, she welcomed her and tenderly stroked her bruised cheek as she thought about her words; Ellie closed her eyes and hummed with the attention. The only thing she knew she could get out was a question, "How could you possibly know that I make you happy?"

"Because here an now? These last few minutes or half hour? Kissing you, talking with you? Talking about the prospect of the two of us together?" Ellie shook her head and looked down. She pushed the top of her head against Ruby's sternum and looked down at the girl's apron as she inhaled before pulling back up, "It's the happiest I've ever been in my life."

"The happiest you've ever been in your life?" Ruby asked sadly, disbelievingly.

"The happiest I've been since I was a toddler... That realistic enough for you?"

"A toddler?"

"Yeah. That's when you first ruffled my feathers." Ellie shrugged with a sad grin as she searched for words, "I thought you were so beautiful… That's why I was so shy around you. It's why I've always been shy around you."

Ruby stroked Ellie's cheeks softly, mindful of bruises and swelling, "I ruffle your feathers?"

"Yeah." It was a simple one-word answer.

"I told Emma that Regina ruffled her feathers a long time ago…"

Ellie smiled, "Well, I guess the saying's stuck around. Us Swans use the phrase all the time for when we are talking about the person we're in love with…"

"I'm not just a person." Ruby said.

"Neither am I."

"I'm a wolf."

"I'm a witch."

"I could eat you."

"I can protect myself."

"It could never work between us."

"It could."

"How do you know?"

"You think that you being a wolf is bad because you could devour me during wolf's time… But the way I see it, the rules of nature are broken all the time. Look at the countless youtube videos and web pages dedicated to the best friends and moments of care given been different species. There's the lions that love that one human guy, there's that leopard the tried to keep the baby baboon safe in the cold night, the pigs and tigers, the hippo and turtle, the orangutan and blue tick hound, the literal lion and tiger and bear—oh my! There are tons of odd animals that love each other. A werewolf and a witch are no different."

Ruby leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together, "We're not?"

Ellie shook her head, "I don't think so." She moved her head just enough to steal another kiss from the longhaired brunette.

Ruby pushed her away and gave her a playful warning look; there was no way she was going to be able to refuse this girl. Not now. Not after everything was out in the open. No, this thing between them was definitely a thing between them. It was definitely more than a mutual secret crush. Ellie broke into a bright smile and held her stare. Ruby watched as a faint purple and blue haze began to swirl in the other girl's eyes. This made her knit her brows.

"What is this? What's going on with your eyes?"

"My eyes? What are you talking about?" Ellie was confused. Ruby looked down for something reflective. She saw the toaster and pointed to it. Ellie moved to it and bent down to look at her face. She stood up and looked back to Ruby, "I don't see anything."

Ruby knit her brows, "Well, it went away…"

"What's 'it'?"

"They were hazy, but…" She reached out for Ellie to come back over to her. Once she did and once they were hugging again, the purple and blue haze came back. She almost got lost in the colors swirling around her irises, but caught a whiff of something outside before she could comment. "You're mom is coming."

Ellie's ears were perked and trained to the direction of her house, "She's in the cruiser. She means business…" She knit her brows at herself wondering how she knew that her mother was driving the cruiser here, but didn't think too long on it. "Listen, she's not gonna like it if I'm here. She's in one of those moods, you know? The overprotective, 'I need to make everything better' moods."

"Then get out of here."

"Can I come back later? I'm not done. We're not done."

Ruby smiled a soft smile, "No we're not. And yes you can."

Ellie grinned, "Okay." She kissed her, "And I wouldn't mention the kisses."

"Obviously." Ruby said.

Ellie knew Emma was getting closer, so she poofed away. She was quick to poof back and kiss her again, "I just had to kiss you again."

Ruby giggled, "Get out of here."

Ellie listened to the other woman this time and poofed away. But she didn't listen completely. After she found herself standing outside her house instead of in her room, she decided that she would poof to the back room of the diner. That way, she would be there the whole time and 'later' would actually be sooner than if she waited for her mother to get back home.

Ruby picked up her towel and started wiping off tables as she waited for the sheriff.

Emma came in when Ruby was on the third table. She looked around and even in the kitchen and the mirror in the back of the kitchen before finally settling on the brunette. She had her hands on her hips while she stared the brunette over, "What'd she say to you?" She finally asked.

Ruby inhaled deeply and spoke clearly, "Just that she was sorry for butting in where she didn't belong…"

The lie detector didn't go off, so she asked, "And nothing else?"

"No."

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeepidy beep, beep! That was on big fat lie. But Emma didn't comment. Something caught her eye in the back though she couldn't be sure what it was because Ruby's voice interrupted her survey of the place.

"Em… why, what's going on?"

"There's something that you don't know about her; something I'm not gonna tell you, and I don't know how you don't know. I know you're not dense, so you have to just be ignoring it. You have to have just been ignoring it. But I don't know how much longer you can or should ignore it."

Ruby's heart was pounding, "Em?"

Emma shook her head, "No.. Just… Don't! Okay! Whatever happens, whatever may come, just don't… Okay?"

They held each other's concerned stare before Ruby looked down like the sad dog she was, "Okay…"

Emma nodded and started for the door, "Okay. Now, if you don't mind, I need to get back home. Regina's gonna kill me when she realizes I'm not home. I snuck out when she went to the kitchen to make a snack…"

After her mother left, Ellie walked in from the back, "She's not telling you not to be with me. I know that's what you're thinking. She's wanting you to not hurt me."

Ruby closed her eyes. She didn't know what to do. Emma knew she lied. She knew Emma knew she lied. The woman was a human lie detector. And she told her 'not to'. She had to respect that, didn't she?

"Ellie…"

"No don't."

"Don't, what?"

"Don't over think it. Please? Don't over think what my mom asked you in the late night in a frustrated grunt and huff. Please don't. Give me a chance. Give me one chance. I can make you happy. I know I can."

Ruby looked up to see the purple and blue haze again, but didn't comment. She leaned in and kissed her. "Okay."

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


	5. Chapter 5

Five weeks went by. Ellie was poofing her way in and out of the house at all hours. She didn't talk to her mother at the station, claiming there was a lot of paperwork to update into the new computer system they got and she also had a lot to read and memorize to prepare for her classes for the next year—she was Type A when it came to that kind of thing. She didn't talk to anyone really at dinner or breakfast with the same excuse.

Ruby walked into the library, and after seeing her friend, she walked over with a smile on her face. "Hey, Belle. How are you?"

Belle stared at her a moment, "You had sex."

Ruby blushed the color of her name, "Excuse me?"

"Who was it with?"

"I haven't had sex! I mean… I've had sex, but not for a while."

Belle smirked, "You've been with someone then. Someone secret. Come on. Out with it."

Ruby shook her head, "There's no one." She mumbled the next part, "That I can tell you about." She looked to the side then back to her, "Listen, do you have any non-fiction about my kind? And maybe witches too?"

Belle laughed, "A witch?! Oh, sparks must fly, huh? She let you play fetch?"

"I don't…" Ruby started as she thought, but paused in slight confusion, "I don't even know what that was an innuendo for…"

Belle laughed, "Alright, alright. I'll behave." She stood and walked her friend over to the appropriate section, "I'm just glad you're finally done with that Mason character."

"Yes, you and everyone else in town, it seems. Why didn't you say anything?"

Belle spun around, "Excuse me! I did. I told you I didn't like him and that I thought he was going to hurt you. Then you told me to buzz off."

Ruby pursed her lips, "I would never use the phrase 'buzz off'."

"You told me to go away and not talk about it."

"Yeah… I'm sorry."

Belle shook her head then turned to the book collection, "You're lucky I like you. I almost had Rumple do something about him. You know how he loves to use dark magic when I let him."

"And just what were you going to let Rumple do?"

"Whatever he wanted… Mason was basically going to be a mouse for a lion." She shrugged as she pulled a book off the shelf, "Here is 'The Encyclopedia of Witches and Warlocks' and here is, 'The Encyclopedia of Werewolves.'" Belle looked through a few more titles, "Oh, ho-ho, ho-ho!" She got excited.

"You sound like Mary Poppins."

"I take that as a compliment, even if I am a bit cheeky." She smiled, "This is probably what you're looking for. 'Witches and Werewolves in Love.' Oh! Are you in love?"

"I don't know." Ruby grabbed the book from Belle's hand and gave her the other two back, "I'm gonna take this, okay?"

"Yeah, sure…" Belle called after the werewolf as she made her way quickly to the front. "It's not like there's a check-out process or anything!" She yelled after her.

"SHHH!"

Belle turned to see who she was being shushed by, "Oh, sorry Hunter."

Hunter looked up from his book confused, "What?"

"Were you not shushing me?"

"No…?"

"Then who was?"

"It was me." Emma said as she and Regina came from behind what Belle had dubbed their corner. "God, Belle, even I know that you can't yell in a library!"

"My apologies." Belle said with a dramatic bow.

"She's just being mean." Regina said as she leaned against her wife's shoulder, holding her hand.

"Am not! I was just giving you a hard time—"

"Don't even think about calling me Marion." Belle said, hiding the smirk on her face.

"Damn it." Emma swallowed and looked around. "Hey, what was Ruby here for?"

Belle looked off after her friend and remembered the mumble from when she walked in, "I think something's going on with her wolf. She needed to know stuff I had on werewolves that wasn't fiction."

"Hope she's okay…" Regina wrapped her arms around Emma's neck as she stood at the woman's side.

Emma in turned wrapped her arm around Regina's waist, "She'd come to us if it were major."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie was in her room the next morning when she got a text from her oh-so-secret girlfriend. They hadn't intentionally become dirty little secrets to each other, but after the past few weeks, that is how it panned out. Ellie knew that Ruby thought her moms would flip, and they both knew the town would have a heyday, and they were still trying to figure it all out. Ellie wanted Ruby to be comfortable with her before they got paraded around and gossiped about by everyone in town.

But when she read her oh-so-secret girlfriend's text, she prayed to anyone listening that it wasn't bad. It was the way it was said really. A classic break-up message: _Hey, come to my place. I told Gran I was sick and she told me to stay here and not get everyone else sick while I deal out their food. No, I'm not really sick, but… Ellie, we need to talk..._

A minute later, before she could make her thumbs type to respond, she got another text: _Okay, I just reread that and that sounds like I'm going to end things. I'm not ending things, but we DO need to talk. I'm making breakfast. Come as soon as you can._

Ellie smiled then and text back, _Breakfast? But it's lunchtime…_

_But you love breakfast. It's your favorite. And I'm making your favorite._

_I'll be there in a few minutes._

Just as Ellie was about to snap her fingers to change her clothes, she smelt her twin coming down the hall and for some reason knew she was coming to see her. She didn't know how she _smelt_ her, but she did. So, she decided to get ready the old fashioned way while Daisy went off on whatever tangent was about to come.

Daisy knocked on the door before coming in. She sat on her sister's bed and watched as she got ready, "So, how'd it go with Ruby…? You know, a few weeks ago?"

"Why?" Ellie asked as she grabbed a plaid shirt with snaps and a v-neck from her closet.

"Because you haven't really spoken or looked at her since…?" Daisy watched her sister go to her bathroom to change and stared at the door.

"What are you talking about? We've gone to the diner everyday for breakfast since you've been home for break." Ellie went to her dresser and pulled out a pair of black jeans, changing where she stood.

"You don't even look at her when we're in the diner." Daisy sat up when Ellie faltered in her jump in the jeans.

"Well… I guess I'm still embarrassed."

"Embarrassed about…?"

"Everything. The fight…" Ellie turned and shrugged as she grabbed a pair of socks and sat next to her sister.

"Just the fight? You guys didn't talk about what I assume she overheard?"

"Oh you mean when you talked about my being in love with her three feet outside the diner that she owns and just so happened to be the only person occupying and the only person with wolf senses in wolf-sense range at the time of which you said it?"

Daisy pursed her lips and looked to the side, then back to her twin, "Yeah."

Ellie didn't say anything. She stood and grabbed her shoes before moving to her desk chair to face her sister.

"Nothing? You're gonna give me nothing to go on?"

"Listen, I have to go…"

"Ellie…?"

"What Daisy?"

"You can tell me, you know? You can tell me where you've been going and what you've been doing… Mom and Momma are both hopeful and worried that you've moved on or are turning to something bad…respectively."

Ellie didn't look at her sister, "Later, Daisy. Okay?"

"Okay." Daisy let her sister poof out of there. Just as Daisy was considering grabbing her sisters phone and going through it, she poofed back and grabbed it.

"Nice try." She said before poofing for real.

Just as Daisy got to the door to go downstairs, a quick knock followed by her blonde mother's head popped in, "Oh.. Why are you in here?" Emma asked after realization that this was no longer their shared room.

"You just missed her." Daisy gave as explanation.

"I haven't gotten to talk to her in a while. I'm getting concerned."

"She knows." Daisy assured. "Um… listen, Momma. There's something I need to talk to you and Mom about…"

Emma looked at her daughter intrigued, "Is it about the boy? Because honestly, Daisy Mae, I'm starting to believe that he is non-existent."

"Yes, Momma, it's about the boy!" Daisy said.

"Oh yay! REGINA!" She yelled to the entire house and grabbed her daughter, bringing her downstairs, "BABE! LIVING ROOM!"

Regina poofed into the living room, "What is going on?! Is everything alright? Someone hurt?"

"Daisy's gonna talk to us about the boy."

"Don't you mean 'boy' darling." Regina smirked, knowing the air quotes she put around 'boy' would drive her daughter nuts.

"MOM!" Daisy stamped her foot. "I'm not gonna bring him here if you two continue on! I'll just marry him and we'll stay in the other realm and there will be no grandchildren."

"WOAH!" Emma stood and put her this-just-got-serious hand out. "Woah!"

"I'm serious. You won't come to the wedding either. He won't ask you for my hand or anything. We'll do a quick and dirty ceremony in the other realm's Vegas and call it good."

"Daisy Mae, if you wanted our attention, you have it." Emma said as she sunk into the couch with her wife.

"Yes. We're all ears, baby girl." Regina and Emma both had wide eyes that showed their shocked reaction of the threats they received.

"Okay…" Daisy started, "Logan is coming to town next week for a three week visit." She took a breath, "He's going to stay at Granny's, but if you two play nice, I might be inclined to let you offer the mansion and make meaningless threats to his manhood if you find him in my room rather than his."

"Oh Daisy, we don't care if you share a bed with your boyfriend that you've been with since you started college…" Regina said.

"Yeah, we're two cool moms… We know how it works. I was knocked up at 18, and your mother was for lack of better words manipulated and basically sold to the king when she was 18. You're 20, you're a good kid. You know the risks of unprotected sex, or sex at all, really. If you and Logan want to have sex—"

"Alalalalalalalalalalala!" Daisy covered her ears, "Stop! I don't want to hear about how you're okay with me and my boyfriend having sex! And I don't want to hear about your sex lives!"

"Alright." Regina said with no emotion—okay, slight amusement, "Good."

"Yeah, we'd be here a while." Emma laughed as she looked to her unimpressed wife and then her daughter, "Your mommies were a little slutty before they found each other…"

"EW!"

"No, Daisy! It's okay! We're only slutty for each other now!" Emma tried, "Er… that came out wrong." She stood up, "How about this. Tell him he can stay with us. We won't question what you do in your room, but if you do…stuff… don't tell us, and have your mother teach you the soundproof and door lock spells." She pointed to herself, "Momma out." She announced her departure then turned at the doorway, "You coming, Mamí?"

Regina looked to her daughter, "I'll teach them to you in a little while." She rushed after her wife, "You know I love it when you say it with your cute, little, trying-to-sound-Spanish accent." They ran upstairs.

Daisy watched them go, "Do they even care that they just ran upstairs to have sex without even a subtle excuse to their daughter? No." She shook her head and moved to her room to call her boyfriend.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie poofed into Ruby's kitchen where she found Ruby preparing stuffed French toast with hot cinnamon apples, hashbrowns, eggs and bacon.

"Hey you." Ruby said after sensing her poof behind her.

"Hello. Good morning-ish." Ellie grinned as she walked behind Ruby and wrapped her arms around the werewolf's middle while kissing her neck. "You didn't lie! All of this is my favorite breakfast!" She watched as Ruby prepared the plate and handed it to her. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome." Ruby smiled when Ellie continued standing, waiting to be directed to where she was going to eat. They had spent all their time together here and spent the few meals they had together either at the table or in the living room. Ruby decided they needed to be comfy and turned her toward the living room.

Ellie dug in happily and offered bites to Ruby who smiled as she took them. Ruby cuddled to Ellie's side and stroked her short hair and neck while she ate. As Ellie enjoyed her meal and soaked up the long sought after attention from the other woman, she tried hiding her smile to no avail.

This made Ruby smirk before grinning wide and lean into the other brunette, giving her ear a kiss before whispering, "I see that smile."

Ellie only grinned wide and tried to get their bodies to cuddle closer while she quickly devoured every last bit of her homemade favorite meal. When she finished, she leaned against he back of the couch and let her head loll to the side to look at the other woman before puckering her lips, waiting for a kiss. And after receiving what she wanted, she smiled, "Thank you." She spoke softly.

Ruby pointed to her plate, silently asking Ellie to put it in the sink. Once the plate faded from sight, she smiled, "You're welcome and thank you for being awesome and magical not having to get up to do away with dishes."

"That is the main reason I gained my magical powers. To never have to do housework again."

"That doesn't surprise me that those are the tasks you honed your skills with."

"Hey, I'm good at everything!"

Ruby gave her a special, flirty look that she had yet to receive, "I don't doubt that."

"Oh…" Ellie swallowed hard as she felt the mood change from light to heavy with tension of the sexual nature.

Ruby saw the blue and purple haze form in Ellie's eyes. It was almost a common occurrence at this point, but it was still freaky. She kept Ellie's stare as she leaned in and kissed her; their eyes were open the whole time and the haze seemed to brighten. It was then that Ruby pulled completely from Ellie and turned from her so she was back-faced.

Ellie, now completely confused, leaned forward, "Hey…" She placed a comforting hand on Ruby's shoulder.

Ruby leaned forward, not warning the other girl from touching her, but moved to grab the book she brought home from the library. She sat straight as she waited for Ellie to shift so she was between her legs and laid back against her front as they turned lengthwise with the couch. She leaned into her, resting the book against her thighs after pulling her legs up, and picked up a hand that was hugging her from behind. She began playing with her fingers and Ellie used her freehand to stroke Ruby's long mane… or coat, so to speak.

"See this book?" Ruby gestured to the book on her lap.

"'Witches and Werewolves in Love'… Mhmm…?" Ellie hummed into her oh-so-secret girlfriend's neck.

"I took it from the library yesterday… It's quite informative. Apparently this happened a lot in the other world."

"Witches and werewolves falling in love?" Ellie asked.

Ruby nodded, "Yeah. I just… I wanted to know everything. Like how you would be able to love me and not leave me… Apparently the witch adapts to the werewolf so they can live a long and happy life. Basically, you subconsciously somehow magic yourself into becoming a werewolf too. But since you're a witch, you not only turn with the moon, but you can turn into your wolf any time if you are trying to protect yourself, me or someone in a vulnerable position."

"That's kind of cool…" Ellie opened the book and started flipping through pages.

"Yeah, the change from witch to wolf, or from witch to witch-wolf happens after the couple has fallen for each other. And it normally presents as a haze in the witch's eyes when the wolf looks at her with love. And usually, once both the witch and wolf admit their lifelong love for each other, something great happens and they both just know the change has happened completely. It's different for every couple apparently, but the haze is the common link… That and the ability for the witch to turn to a wolf." She paused a moment before looking at the younger girl. "Have you been getting wolf senses? The book says that you should have some if the haze has started."

"I have actually. I haven't had time to think about what they really were what with hiding you from my moms and family and public and at the same time trying to spend every waking moment with you, but also having to work and study up for the fall and spring semesters next year…"

Ruby grinned and leaned up to kiss her, "Well, now we don't have to worry about it. It's supposed to happen."

"Wait a minute… Haze in the witch's eyes… Like the haze you keep telling me you see?"

"Exactly like that." Ruby nodded.

"Awe, you've been looking at me with love?"

Ruby flushed bright, "I have."

Ellie kissed her cheek before realizing what she just said. She moved from behind the werewolf to the floor and looked up at her the hazing seemingly brightening with each passing second, "You love me? And I love you? We're in love with each other?"

"Yes we are." Ruby nodded.

The haze brightened to the point that a bright, white light shone from her eyes. Ruby could barely keep her eyes on the girl at all because of the piercing white. But as soon as the light came, it was gone and Ellie collapsed on top of her. Ruby shook her and the body growled a deep, wolf-like, tired growl before coming alive. Ellie's face flashed what her wolf-self would look like; this wave traveled her whole body reaching her fingers and toes before Ellie herself came back.

"Woah…" Ruby said as she took Ellie's face with her hands.

"What the hell? Was that the great intense thing that happened for us to both know that I am now a werewolf and a witch?"

Ruby nodded.

"Well that's all too convenient that we just learned that fact and it happened, isn't it?" Ellie looked up to her ladylove.

Ruby stared back, still wide-eyed, "It was like "Disney's Beauty and the Beast," not the real one—when the beast floats in the air and the light and everything, but not at the same time because you didn't float in the air. But I know what you're gonna look like when you wolf out." Her face finally changed and she jutted her bottom lip out, "Oh my God, you're light brown and soooo cute. You're also a puppy. I'm sure it won't last long, but you are and you are so adorable I could eat you up." Ellie gave her a lazy grin causing Ruby to realize what she said, "You're dirty. I like it." She pulled her in for a kiss, "Let's find out if this has anything about your puppiness, hmm?"

"Okay." Ellie settled back behind Ruby once more and they read through the entire book together in hopes that there would be no more surprises. The only problematic thing they learned was that before Ellie can automatically control turning into a wolf or not, she goes through her first wolf's week, where she quickly grows from puppy to adult and hones all of her skills as a wolf. Wolf's week started the next week.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma and Regina were up late that night in the living room, waiting for Ellie to come through the door. They'd called and texted and nothing. So, Regina put up a poof shield around the house, so Ellie would have to come in the front door.

Ellie came in and walked straight into the living room after multiple tries in vain hope that she would be able to break the shield. "Why with the shield?" She asked.

"We need to talk." Emma started.

"About…?"

"We don't know where you've been…" Regina's tone was calming to both her daughter and wife as they felt the tension rise.

"Oh.. Uh.. Out."

"With who?" Regina asked in a tone that told her daughter she should have known it was coming.

Emma though, stared at the girl intently, "What the hell is that?" She walked over and pushed Ellie's collar down, "Oh dear god… that's not a bruise. That's not a bruise she got in that fight that's for some reason still there… that's not a fighting bruise… that's… that's… that's a hickie! Ellie Jane!"

"Momma!" Ellie stamped her foot in a whine.

"Who is it? Do we know her? How long has this been going on? 'Cause it wasn't even a whole month ago that you were fighting a guy because of Ruby…" Regina said, remembering the day and worrisome night well.

"I'm not answering anything."

"Why?" Emma asked visibly saddened, "Logan is coming next week. I had a spark of want to meet both my baby's boos and get it all done and over with."

"Well the spark can flicker away." Ellie turned and started for the stairs.

"She make you happy?" Emma called after her.

"Yeah." Ellie grunted much like her blonde mother would have if she were in her position.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"Jesus Christ…" Ellie said after walking into her room to find her twin, "What?"

"It's later. And I'm not going to remind you that not only are we twins, but we are magical babies and the product of true love and her true love… I know what you're feeling all the time. And I know that you have for once in your life been happy. So… you might as well tell me. I swear on my boyfriend, my future shop and my own life that I won't tell a soul."

Ellie stared at her sister, "I wish we had that soundproof spell…"

Daisy smiled, "I learned it this evening. It is activated…." She flicked her wrist, "Now."

"Wow… how did you learn it?"

"Well, I told our parents that Logan was coming here next week for a three week visit and that if they ask him to stay here that they can't get mad if we were to share a room. Then they proceeded to tell me about their straight-sex days, and that they were both a little slutty before they became slutty for each other…"

"Gross…"

"I know… Then I guess, that made them randy and they went upstairs for a while. I like to pretend they were planning their attack for when you came home and when Logan comes next week."

The words finally sunk in, "Wait, your boyfriend's coming next week? Like as in next week?"

"No next week as in 19 weeks from now—Yes, next week as in next week."

"And they're gonna want to do dinners in the night time… Shit!"

"What? Why what's happening in the night time next week?"

"Next week is wolf's week…"

Daisy knit her brows confused, "And…?"

Ellie sighed, "And when a witch and a werewolf lerve each other, the witch adapts to and becomes a werewolf that is able to change at any time… after her first wolf's week where she grows quickly from a puppy to an adult. And the first wolf's week happens after the wolf and witch admit their love for each other and want for each other and decide to be together forever… And long story short, I'm not a swan anymore, I'm a wolf and my first wolf's week is next week."

Daisy grinned wide, "I knew it! Oh! Ruby loves you?!" She stood up and hugged her sister, "Yay! OH! Oh my God you are so lucky; I am so jealous…. You're gonna live for like ever… I wish Logan was a werewolf. We're gonna be 80 and I'm gonna be wrinkly and fragile and you're gonna look like you do now."

Ellie rolled her eyes, "My life span? That's what you're fixated with?"

"Well, the rest was bound to happen, right? The only thing I didn't ever think about was the lifespan thing…"

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


	6. Chapter 6

"Change of plans." Daisy said as she and Ellie walked into the living room where everyone had gathered the day before wolf's week started. Ellie plopped into the chair next to the entryway next to Hunter and Billie on the floor, and Daisy stood to have everyone's attention.

"Change of plans?" Regina looked up from her novel and Emma stopped coloring in her coloring book.

Daisy knit her brows staring at her blonde mother's hands, "Momma, are those my pencils that I have for my fashion design classes and use to draw up clothes that make and are not meant for coloring in coloring books?"

Emma looked up and bit her lip before, "No?"

Daisy's tone was scolding as she crossed her arms, "Really?"

"Really dear, she saw them and wanted some of her own." Regina provided as Emma put a pencil back in its spot in the container. "So, I bought them for her." The brunette added as she leaned over and stroked her wife's cheek with the back of her finger.

"I like to color." Was all Emma gave as an excuse for wanting the fancy pencils her daughter had been required to use.

Regina's hand dropped then she rubbed her wife's shoulder and waited as Emma cautiously put the lid on the container and the container, pencil sharpener and coloring book on the floor before cuddling against her wife. The brunette then looked over to Ellie who was in a hoodie—which she knew was being worn to cover her neck, a pair of men's cargo shorts, and her old skater shoes that she had a tendency to walk out of. She watched her brunette twin pull out her phone and type furiously with a smile before Regina looked to her other daughter, who was having a staring contest with her wife, "What is the change of plans?"

"Well. I decided that I'm not going to subject Logan to the entire family in one sitting. So, he's not going to come until late. Billie and Hunter are either going to be in their rooms or at friends' houses while you two meet him and we talk a little before going to bed. Then the next day we'll have a family lunch with everyone including grandma and grandpa. I already called them and Henry and Brendon, so you can't say 'no' even if you wanted to."

"And why has this change all of the sudden happened?" Emma asked as she looked to Ellie who stood up like she was about to leave.

"Well, I just think it'll be better this way…" Daisy tried.

"I'm gonna go." Ellie started moving for the door.

"Go where?" Regina called after her daughter.

"Out." The brunette girl said without turning around.

"This doesn't have anything to do with her and the places she's been going and the people she's been hanging out with does it?" Emma asked their blonde twin. She spoke in accusation as she stood and watched as Ellie halted all movement.

Ellie didn't turn around though, she'd felt her wolf want to take over. There was a growl that came with her frustration and she felt what seemed to be fangs growing in her mouth.

"Momma." Daisy looked at her, "It's my decision."

"Bye." Ellie managed to get out; it was a low, threatening tone, but she managed to get it out before poofing.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie walked into the diner, still frustrated at being accused of being the reason the family plans were changing. She knew it was true and it was a rightful accusation, but she didn't like being the blame everyone pointed at.

She sat down on a stool at the counter and waited. She smelt her girlfriend before she saw her, but she never looked at her. It was a game they played around the public eye. Ellie was 'still embarrassed and angry' and Ruby just 'didn't know what to do,' and the only words they exchanged were what Ellie wanted to eat. And that's exactly what happened then. She didn't look at Ruby as she ordered, and as soon as she had paid and her food was in front of her, she was out the door.

She went around to the back where a small open lot and the dumpsters to each business on the street were. She leaned against a far wall, as far away from the dumpsters as possible and closed her eyes trying to calm down.

Ruby walked out of the back door and jogged her way over to her. "Hey…" She immediately leaned into the taller girl and took her face in her hands, "What's wrong?"

Ellie shook her head, "I'm the family disappointment." She said after a few more minutes of silence.

"What? No… no you're not." Ruby hugged her girlfriend.

"Daisy changed the plans so that I could be with you aside from a lunch for wolf's week… And the only thing my parents asked was if it was because of me that plans changed."

"That doesn't make you a disappointment, Ellie." Ruby tried to reason with her.

"It does. It's my fault that everyone is rearranging schedules… And I mean… I'm the only one that doesn't have something special." She looked at Ruby, "I mean, I have something special…" Ellie looked into her girlfriend's eyes telling her that Ruby was indeed the something special, "But like I don't have any skill or talent… Daisy has her drawing and fashion stuff, Hunter has music, Billie has dance, Henry's married and a college professor, and I'm not… It's always been that way."

"You got good grades in school…"

"We all get good grades." Ellie looked down, "I'm just a little down on myself right now. I'll get over it. I always do."

"I wish there was something I could do…"

"Just… stay we me for a little?" Ellie started sliding down the wall to sit and eat her lunch. Ruby smiled and sat next to her.

"Okay." She kissed Ellie's cheek.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"Momma!" Daisy turned around after Ellie poofed.

"Wow." Billie said as she slowly sat up from her place on the ground as she looked from the doorway Ellie walked out of to her blonde mother.

Hunter mumbled under his breath, "Lunch is gonna be super fun."

"Emma?" Regina stood curtly, "Bedroom. I need to speak with you." She held her hand out and Emma regretfully took it before she and her wife poofed to their room. Regina waved her hand, putting on the lock to the door and soundproofing their room. "What the hell was that?"

"What?"

"You basically punched our daughter in the face!"

"No I didn't! I simply asked if Ellie asked Daisy to rearrange everything! The girl has hardly been here, and before that damn fight she wasn't really there either!"

"She has always been there, been here. She's our reliable one."

"She keeps to herself; she bottles everything. She was and has been there, sure, but she hasn't been there mentally. She gives one word grunts or sort of explains something but that's it!"

"So why did you drive her off?!"

"I wasn't trying to drive her off! I was trying to make her see that she's not here anymore! That she doesn't do anything! I was trying to make her see that she's… That I'm losing her!" Emma shouted as tears spilled from her eyes, "I'm losing her. I can't lose her."

"She's technically a grown up. She has every right to move out of this house and on with her life…" Regina spoke calmly, "I don't like it anymore than you do, but it's our reality."

"She's me."

"She's you?"

"She thinks that there's nothing special about her, but there is. She's special and she doesn't know it." Emma turned and slumped on their bed.

Regina, who had been on the other side of their bed, climbed on and crawled her way over to her wife, suctioning around her, "She's you."

"Yeah. I just… I can't lose her." Emma said, and after a hard swallow, "I don't think she's over Ruby."

"Then where is she getting hickies?"

"Well, if I were her, and I was, I would be on a self-destructive path to nothing."

"You're not suggesting that she's found solace in the arms of a whore, are you?"

"I don't think she's paying for sex no, but I do think that there are plenty of girls that have wanted to go out with her since they were in high school. And I do think that that damn fight with the jackass might have set her off into taking advantage of getting these chippies' attention. And I hope she's not getting into worse trouble that I'm gonna have to arrest my own daughter and alleged future sheriff for…"

"Darling, she's a good person."

"You and I were good people too. I was arrested for a crime I didn't commit and sent to jail, where I gave birth to our oldest child. And you tried to kill your mother-in-law multiple times before cursing an entire realm here…"

"Now that you've put it like that I'm starting to worry."

"Yeah…"

"We can't worry until we're positive that there's something to worry about."

"Okay." Emma tried to sound like she was able to do that. "We'll not worry… until we have to."

"We need to give her space. Focus on Daisy and her probable future husband."

"Right." Emma nodded.

~0~0~0~0~0~

The next day, Ellie was packing a duffle when she smelt her sister and turned to see her poofing into her room.

"Momma didn't mean anything… yesterday when she was… Well, when…" Daisy tried to make her sister feel better.

"Yeah. She just asked if I was the reason everything changed because it had to be my fault."

"She asked that because she hasn't hardly seen you since you got in that stupid fight with Mason."

"That fight was not stupid!" Ellie gave her twin a hard look, "He deserved it."

"And as you said countless times, you shouldn't have done it." Daisy crossed her arms in challenge and when Ellie gave up, she changed the subject a little, "I think they think that something horrible and sinister is happening with you."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but I keep hearing them tell each other not to worry until they have to…"

"After this week… I think we might tell people, but I just need to get through this week." Ellie looked out her window, "The sun is starting to set; I need to hurry."

"Okay. I need to go get my boyfriend anyways…" She looked at her sister a moment before hugging her, "Tell me everything!"

"I will." Ellie nodded as she stuffed the last bit of clothing she would need in her duffle, "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie had just enough time to poof to Ruby's throw her duffle on the couch, take Ruby's hand and poof them to the forest before the sun set completely.

"Okay. It's gonna hurt the first time. Remember what the book said."

"Yeah." Ellie nodded and looked around, waiting for it to happen.

"Hey." Ruby waited until she was met with Ellie's eyes, "Stay with me. Look here." She pointed to her eyes, "I won't let anything happen to you, alright? The wolf is going to want to take over, but you have to resist it. You have to dominate; it's like training a dog. If you let them walk you or feel dominant in any way then they aren't going to listen to you."

"Right." Ellie said, "I'll try."

Ruby walked the couple feet over to her and kissed her, "We can do this. I have faith."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma was sitting on the front porch cleaning her shotgun—not the pistol, the shotgun. Regina walked out with some iced tea. When she looked to her wife, she started laughing, "Well, just what do you think you're doing, Rodney Atkins?"

"I'm just cleanin' my gun." Emma replied with a smirk.

"She told us not to scare him."

"I ain't gonna scare him; just intimidate him a little." Emma decided to use a thick Southern drawl.

Regina shook her head and pursed her lips, "If we get in trouble it's your fault."

Emma looked from her gun to her wife, "Noted."

They heard a howl in the distance.

"I guess Ruby decided to forego her cloak this week." Regina pursed her lips and listened.

"Well, she does it every so often."

They then heard another howl join.

This made Regina frown in askance, "Are there other werewolves in Storybrooke?"

"I thought that werewolves were running on extinct… Maybe it's a real wolf and Ruby made friends…"

They let the thought roll around their brains a moment before they saw the poof at the end of the walkway and Emma immediately went back to her gun.

"NO! Momma! No!" Daisy yelled as she walked a tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, strong chinned, Trevor Donovan, Chris Hemsworth, dashingly handsome type man up the path and took in just what her mother was doing. She looked up to him, "Ignore the woman with the gun. She's just trying to scare you, _which she promised_ she wasn't going to do."

Emma stood up when they got to the stairs, the gun put together—never actually cleaned—and put it up against her shoulder as if taking aim. "I promised no such thing." Regina waved her hand, making the gun disappear. "Hey!" Emma looked to her wife.

"Darling, honestly." Regina stood and ushered the man up the stairs, "I'm sorry about her. She's overprotective. I promise no harm will intentionally come to you… Though we do have accidents." She looked to her daughter and shook her head knowingly, "I'm not making it better by saying _that_…" She looked back to the man, "You must be Logan. I'm Regina." She stuck her hand out.

"It's a pleasure…" He tried to sound genuine, but he was keeping his eyes peeled for his girlfriend's other mother.

Daisy was scolding said mother silently.

Emma glared at her daughter then him as Regina brought everyone inside. They sat down in the living room and Emma stayed standing with her arms crossed, "So, tell me about yourself, Logan."

"Emma dear, this is not an interview." Regina said curtly.

Emma raised her brows, "'Emma dear'? Did you just say that?"

"Yes! Because you're being ridiculous!"

Logan looked to his girlfriend questioningly, who was sitting protectively next to him, seemingly ready to pounce at any moment.

Daisy smiled and turned from her arguing mothers to explain, "My Mom… Regina, when she was evil she used to call everyone 'dear.' It was just a thing, well, my Momma… Emma, she hates it when Mom calls her 'dear' because to Mom it's a term of endearment that's actually an insult when coming from her lips."

"You're embarrassing yourself, darling."

"I'm embarrassing myself? What about you! With your handshakes and being…nice…" Emma knit her brows and looked to Logan, "Logan." She said with a somewhat friendly tone and sat in a chair adjacent to the couch, "Tell me about yourself."

"Darling…" Regina's tone was in warning.

"What? I need to know about him! It is an interview!" She looked to the man, wanting him to defend her, "You thinking about marriage?"

"I…" He looked to his girlfriend and knew the right answer, "Yes."

"See, it's an interview." Emma said triumphantly.

"An interview to give your daughter away? Momma, what century are we in?"

"One where lesbian mommies can interview their daughter's alleged future husbands!"

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie stalked into the house the next day with different clothes on and made her way to the kitchen.

"Hey Ellie!" Billie said cheerfully as she saw her sister, "Guess what Momma did last night?"

Ellie kissed her sister's hair in greeting before asking, "What did Momma do?"

"She had the shotgun out and was cleaning it when Logan came." The youngest of the Swan clan giggled.

"Oh wow." Ellie gave a small chuckle, "Is he still alive?"

"Just barely." Logan walked into the kitchen with Hunter, Henry and Brendon from the back patio.

"If you can survive the first meeting with Emma, you're in." Brendon told him as he walked over to Ellie to hug her in greeting before turning back to the other outsider, "And feel lucky it was only the shotgun."

"Yeah…" Henry nodded after hugging his sister, "With Brendon, she was sharpening knives and throwing them."

"And she 'accidently' let one out of her hand too soon and 'missed' the target just barely missing me as well…"

"She'll tell you that she sucks at throwing, but the thing is, ever since the curse broke and Momma learned who she was and accepted it—And Grandma taught her out to use a bow and arrow, she's never missed a target…" Henry provided.

Logan's brows were raised, "Yup I definitely feel lucky it was just cleaning a shotgun." He looked over to Ellie once more. "You are Ellie."

"Yes I am. You are Logan."

Logan smiled and nodded before, "Wow, you really do look the exact same as your mom and Daisy but with brown hair." He said as he stuck his hand out.

Ellie smirked as she took his hand, "Simmer Sparky. Don't get any ideas; I'm attracted to women. And I'm not into the whole… twins and…" She made a face then gestured to his body, "that."

Logan turned bright red, "No that's not what I… I-I-I-I-I didn't mean…. I wasn't coming onto… I… I… I didn't, I wasn't… I love my girlfriend. I'm sorry if you got the impression—"

Ellie and Billie started laughing, before Ellie placed her hands on his shoulders, "Okay, Sparky! Summer Donna! It's okay! I was just fucking with you. We're all probably going to fuck with you at one point or another… It's how we show we care." He nodded and looked around uncomfortable, "I like you." Ellie said after another minute or two.

"You like him?" Daisy asked with a happy face as she walked in.

"Yeah. I think he's cute. And he got real flustered when I told him no threesome."

"Ellie!" Regina walked in and quickly ran to her twelve year old, covering her ears.

"What like she hasn't heard the word before with the shows that you and Momma watch…" Regina didn't retract her hands, she just stared at her daughter, "Okay, I'm sorry, Mom." Ellie apologized and pulled her phone from her pocket.

Lunch played out in much the same fashion. Snow and Charming were on their best behavior until they learned that they could mess with him once before Daisy would make them stop. Ellie would talk to everyone sort of, but was preoccupied with her phone for most of the meal, and she wouldn't do much more than grunt when Emma tried to talk to her.

"Ellie." Emma tried for the umpteenth time.

"Hm?" Ellie pulled out her phone when she felt it buzz.

Snow glanced to the other end and saw the tension in her daughter's face before she decided to keep Logan occupied with conversation, Brendon and Henry noticed the same thing and tried to keep him from the scene as well.

Billie saw the tension in her Momma's face as well and moved quickly grabbing Ellie's phone from her, "Momma's talking to you."

"Billie, give me my phone back." Ellie's tone was deadly.

"No. Not until you talk to Momma. Who are you talking to anyway?" Billie turned the phone over and started trying to read before it was snatched back out of her hands.

"None of your damn business." Ellie huffed.

Billie's jaw dropped and she looked over to Emma.

Emma was already on her daughter like stink on cheese, "Hey!" It was a low growl stunning the table into silence.

Ellie didn't look at her mothers she just put her phone back in her pocket and stared at her plate.

Emma stood up and walked around Regina, sitting at the head of the table, to Ellie sitting on Regina's other side. She grabbed her by the collar, and dragged her into the hallway out of site from the table.

Daisy looked at Billie, "Don't hold it against her." She told her little sister, "She's going through some stuff, okay? Personal, private stuff."

Billie nodded and Regina looked to her blonde daughter with intrigue. "Daisy?"

"Nope. We have company," She gave her mother a fake smile and was talking in a faux-cheery tone, "It's bad enough that Momma just handled Daisy like a lion cub, grabbing her by the scruff. We're not going to get into something I may or may not know while we're eating a family lunch with a guest."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie pulled from her mother's grip, "Let go of me!" She turned with fiery eyes to the blonde.

"What the hell was that?"

"What?"

"You're acting like a child! Cursing at your little sister? I can understand Daisy, but Billie? She still is a kid! What the hell?"

"Are you done?" Ellie asked after a short staring contest.

Emma was not letting that one slide, "What's going on with you?"

"I just have stuff, that's all."

"Ellie Jane."

Ellie shook her head, "Look, I know I've already made an ass of myself. I'm not going to further that by staying out here and arguing with you. We have family lunch."

"That you're much too preoccupied to even notice is happening since you're on your damn phone the whole time."

"Look! Momma, I'm not a bad person! Just because I'm the dumbass and reject of this family doesn't mean I'm doing anything bad! I just have stuff! Okay?" Ellie hissed before she walked back into the dining room and sat in her seat quietly.

She shoveled her food around the rest of the meal and as her mothers and grandmother were getting the dessert, presumably talking about her, she leaned over and stared at the side of her little sister's face.

Billie glanced a few times out of the corner of her eyes before she turned and looked at her dead on. "What?" She asked softly.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you." Ellie whispered.

Billie's expectant face didn't change, "I know."

Ellie chuckled, "Well, you forgive me?"

"When I find out why you're being weird and mean, I will." The youngest Swan promised.

"Soon." Ellie nodded.

"Then soon." Billie turned to face Hunter sitting across from her once more.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie walked into Ruby's house that early evening after finally escaping the family.

"Puppy!" Ruby greeted with open arms.

"Puppy?" Ellie asked with a grin.

"Yes. Since you are a wolf puppy, I decided I will call you my puppy." Ruby kissed her girlfriend.

"But I won't be a puppy by the end of the week…"

"So you say." Ruby grinned then took in her girlfriend, "What's wrong?"

"I don't like lying to my family. I don't like keeping things from them. I don't like being secretive. I don't like being this person I've become around them so I can be with you…"

Ruby tilted her head in consideration, "Okay." Ruby nodded, "How about this. How about we tell them after the full change happens. So next week… or the week after that, or the week after that, or the week after that…" Ruby turned from Ellie.

"You're still not ready? We've been hiding for over a month… I know in the big picture, it's not long, but it's eating away at me. I don't know how you can stand talking to them and being so cheery…"

Ruby looked at her girlfriend, "Well, when you put it that way I sound like a bitch." She then giggled, "No pun…" She sobered when Ellie didn't even crack a smile, "Okay. I've been saying sometime after wolf's week… Let's do it the end of next week? We can get through this week then plan how we're going to do it?"

Ellie nodded and leaned into her girlfriend, kissing her sweetly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, my puppy." Ruby giggled.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Wolf's week was filled with texts and missed calls from Regina and Emma. Ellie eventually returned everything, but the ones in the night, the time when they really worried, their calls and texts always went unanswered. Ellie did her best to stay in communication, but she didn't want to be around them while she was changing and still learning what she was now capable of.

Early the morning after wolf's week ended, Ellie got a call from Regina, "Hey, Mom." Ruby and Ellie just barely got back to Ruby's and she just barely got to her phone before it went to voicemail.

"Hey baby girl. I haven't seen you since lunch almost a week ago…" Regina started.

Ellie held the phone to her ear as Ruby suctioned herself to her back and listened in, "Yeah, I've just had stuff…"

"Stuff. Right. Not to be confused with 'things'." Regina tried joking to get her daughter to talk to her.

Ellie chuckled, "Nope, that would be bad."

"Right…" She knew that Ellie wasn't going to give anything up, "Well, we're all having breakfast at the diner with Logan… I hope you come. Your grandparents and Henry and Brendon will all be joining us as well."

"Yeah, I will be there. I actually told Gran that I was gonna help restock this morning. She was complaining yesterday about it, so I'm already on my way there." Ellie said.

"Good. I've missed you, darling."

"I missed you too, Mommy." The extra M and Y fell out of her mouth before she even realized she said it that way, "I love you." She swallowed hard and hung up the phone and looked down at it as the picture of Regina that showed when she was calling went away.

Ruby kissed Ellie's cheek, "The end of this week. Okay?"

Ellie nodded and they got ready quickly to get to the diner early.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ellie was in the back room sitting at a small table against a wall refilling syrup dispensers for the morning rush when Ruby came in having made the excuse for grabbing napkins and straws.

The older werewolf sauntered over to her girlfriend and ran her fingers through the short, choppy hair and down her neck and shoulders. She made sure to graze her nails down Ellie's arms as she leaned down and kissed her head, cheek, jaw, and ear, "I love you, puppy."

Ellie chuckled at the endearment and shook her head, "I am not a puppy anymore."

Ruby grinned, "Mmm, mhmm!" She nodded, "You're my puppy."

Ellie turned to the older woman. She locked gazes with her and kissed her sweetly before sighing, "Okay. I guess I'll be your puppy."

"My puppy." Ruby said triumphantly before kissing her again.

It was at this prime moment, as Ruby was mounting the young girl to sit astride her lap that Granny came into the back. She had been eyeing them closely when she could. She might not change at wolf's time, but she knows dog when she smells dog. And Ellie definitely reeked. And before this week, they'd been acting weird. But even with her thoughts and conclusions, she never thought she would see what she walked in on, "What in gods' names!?" She cried in an angry huff, "What the hell are you doing, girl?!"

Ruby jumped about five feet in the air and Ellie released a bit of magic, almost setting fire to a crate of peaches as they sprang apart.

"Granny!" Ruby said, still in shock at getting caught.

"Yeah! Granny!" Granny looked at her like she was a fool, "What is going on in that head of yours, girl? Do you know who she is? She is your best friends' daughter! Your best friends that almost came back here just now to greet their daughter because apparently _their daughter_," Granny looked accusingly to Ellie, "Hasn't been acting like their daughter lately and has been gone all hours of the day and night, not telling them where she's going when she leaves or if she even returns."

"Granny, please! Keep your voice down!"

"Keep my voice down?" She shouted, "You are boinking—"

Ellie waved a hand, taking Granny's voice in panic.

Ruby turned wide-eyed, "What did you do?"

Ellie was holding a swirling goldenrod ball in her hand, "I just took her voice while she freaked out… I can put it back."

Granny launched at the young girl after realizing she wasn't getting any sound out. Ruby pushed Granny back and Ellie jumped away.

"Granny, listen to me!" Ellie stared at the older woman, "I love her. I love Ruby." She said trying to sooth the older woman, that only made Granny want to yell and scream about how she knew that… or that's what it looked like.

Ruby knew that was going to be her reaction, "Granny—Gran… Gran!" She shook her grandmother to get her attention, "I love her too. That's why I didn't use my cloak this week. And that's why she smells of mutt… She's a werewolf now."

Granny looked at Ruby with sympathetic eyes before staring at the ball that was her voice in Ellie's hand.

Ellie relented, "You promise not to scream and yell?"

Granny nodded and in return Ellie gave her, her voice back. She looked at Ellie, "I'd only heard of a witch and wolf pairing. Only heard that they are the most powerful couples, but I'd never seen such a pair." She placed a hand on Ellie's cheek, "You've always loved her."

Ellie smiled and nodded, "Yeah."

Granny was smiling too, "I don't have to worry about her anymore." She looked at her granddaughter then back to her, "Make her happy."

"I will, I promise."

Granny nodded, "Your family is outside. You think you can finish this in a flash?"

Ellie nodded and waved her hand, the syrups pouring themselves then floating off the table and out the open door to place themselves at their assigned tables. After a moment of standing in the room with the Lucas family, she pecked Ruby's cheek and walked out to the diner.

She sat next to her little sister. Billie though, immediately crinkled her nose after Ellie sat down, not giving their mothers to say a thing to her, "Jeez! Have you been in the forest? You smell like trees and dirt… and dog…"

Daisy whipped her head over to her sisters with wide eyes at the mention of 'dog', and tried to cover for her twin, "Ellie! I thought we got you to stop going to the shelter and getting attached to the dogs after Trusty…"

"Trusty…" Emma looked down at the table with sad eyes.

Logan knit his brows, "Who's Trusty?"

"Trusty was our dog growing up. Died when Ellie and I were sophomores… Momma's still broken up about it."

Emma looked up and turned in her chair to look at her wife straight in the side of the face, "Honey, baby, maybe if Ellie found a good puppy we can get it and bring it home and take care of it forever."

At the words, 'good puppy,' Ellie blushed and stared at her plate.

"Is that what you've been doing all this time? Volunteering at the shelter?" Emma didn't wait for Ellie to answer, instead, she looked at her wife, "Please can we have a puppy?"

Regina rolled her eyes before closing them and scratching her brow as she gathered the best words to let her wife down with, "Darling, I don't want you getting attached again."

"But… but… I want a puppy. That's the only thing going on my birthday and Christmas lists now and forever. Or until I get one. I want another puppy and I want to be able to pet her and play with her and lerve her! Babe! Please!"

Ellie was the color of her girlfriend's name, though no one seemed to notice except Daisy, and when she looked at her grandmother, she saw an intrigued, piecing-the-puzzle-together look come across her face. But she didn't think too hard on it as she heard Ruby's chuckle coming from the back room as she walked out. She knew that Ruby was laughing at the conversation that was just had. She refused to look at Ruby in that moment. She knew that everything would be out in the open if she did.

Ruby came behind Ellie and surveyed the table, "My goodness, we have a full house today!"

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


	7. Chapter 7

Ellie was at the station alone. After that wolf's week, she tried to go back to the life she led before Ruby, and working at the station was her life before Ruby. She inhaled deeply when she heard the door to the station open and shut and smiled. She stood and leaned against the deputy's desk she'd been working at as her girlfriend walked in.

Ruby tilted her head and pursed her lips as she had been caught bringing lunch for her girlfriend and her girlfriend's mother.

Ellie grinned, "The bad thing about wolf senses? I can smell you coming." She waited for Ruby to walk over and took the food from her, setting it on the desk, "But that's the good thing about wolf senses too." She smiled wide as she kissed Ruby's neck, nipping and making Ruby hum.

"Oh, Puppy, I love it when you do that." Ruby held Ellie in place as she melted into her.

"Babe?" Ellie pulled from the older woman and looked at her.

"Yes, Puppy?"

"We need to come up with a plan to tell my parents that we're together. I mean, everyone's going to know sooner or later. Granny knows—"

"That woman holds everyone's secrets and keeps them all close. She won't tell anyone."

"Yeah, well, yesterday at breakfast, my grandmother was looking at me like she had an inkling as to what was going on between us, and Daisy knows. She's not going to tell unless I give her the 'okay' but she's only one person. She won't resist someone guessing it out of her, or playing charades so someone else will know sooner or later…"

"Okay, okay!" Ruby stayed in her girlfriend's arms before freaking out, "You're mom's not here, is she?" She stood and shook her head, "Oh, wait… I watched her leave."

Ellie looked at the other woman and spoke deadpan, "And you shouldn't have to do that… You shouldn't have to freak out and worry if my parents are here or not…"

Ruby pushed Ellie's choppy bangs from her eyes and held her face in her hands. Ellie's hands came up to her wrists and held her hands to her face lovingly. "Oh, Puppy…" Ruby smiled as she leaned in then pressed their lips together.

As they inhaled to deepen the kiss a foreign scent filled their nostrils and they leapt apart as soon as they smelt the other person. That didn't stop the other person from seeing them though.

"Ruby…" Regina was shocked to see such a display of affection between her daughter and anyone, let alone Ruby Lucas.

"Regina!" Ruby put her hands out as if trying to keep a wild animal tame.

"Mom!"

Regina glanced to her daughter and back to her and her wife's best friend, "I don't know what to say…"

"Regina, listen. We didn't want you to find out like this. We just… We didn't know how to tell you and Emma that… Well that we…"

"That we're together." Ellie gave Ruby the words she needed.

Regina looked between her and her wife's daughter and her and her wife's best friend, "You're in love?"

Ruby swallowed a hard lump in her throat and nodded as her eyes became moist.

"With my baby girl?"

No one in the room was sure if Regina's tone was threatening or inquisitive. But just in case something was about to happen, Ellie stepped in front of Ruby and unconsciously began showing teeth and snarling.

Regina was taken aback at the sight of fangs. She grabbed the air in front of her and pulled, magically causing Ellie to be pulled to her, "Are those fangs?" She began inspecting her daughter's mouth and watched the fangs fade to normal canines. She looked over to the werewolf, "You really do love her… She wouldn't have fangs if you didn't."

"Yeah…"

"Your first wolf's week was this past week?" Regina looked up at her daughter.

"Yeah, Mom."

"And the reason you've been gone is not because of chippies that liked you in high school and now do bad things and not because of something sinister and not because of volunteering at the pound, but because of trying to get to know each other in a different light?"

"Yeah… Who said I was doing something sinister?"

"Your mother has a very imaginative mind… And she's a worrywart when it comes to you kids. She knew that she and I were both good people until we weren't and her imagination ran."

"And there was a tiny part that thought it might be true?" Ellie asked in disbelief.

"Ellie…" Regina looked into her daughter's eyes, "You're a closed book. You're the only one that we have to pry information from. You're very private, and that's not a bad thing. I was once very private, but being private and not sharing and making everything a battle… It makes the imagination wander and get to many different paths."

"A 'yes' would have sufficed, Mom." Ellie pulled from her and turned around to walk away from her.

"Ellie!" Regina tried.

Ellie just shook her head and started for the door, but Ruby's voice came through, "Ellie. Babe, come here."

Ellie sighed and walked back over to her. Ruby took Ellie's face in her hands and Ellie held onto Ruby's wrists, a common, comforting way they stood when they tried to get points across. They whispered in hushed tones as Ruby convinced her that her mothers still loved her and that the overactive imagination just means that they care. And that she is a private person and lots of people think oddly of her, which she already knows and brushes them off like crumbs. And that maybe they knew that she was hiding something and that's why they thought she might be doing something bad.

Ellie stood straight after the last point was made and looked to her mother, "Did you know I was hiding something?"

"Well, Ellie darling, you weren't exactly subtle." Regina responded.

"Sorry… I just… You're right. We were just trying to get to know each other differently."

Regina nodded and walked over to her daughter, hugging her, "I'm happy that you are finally happy…"

"Yeah…"

"Your mother is going to be…" Regina trailed off as she realized that Emma probably wasn't so much going to be thrilled as she was going to be angry and confused. "Oh Emma, my love…" Regina pulled from her daughter and started pacing in order to think about what they were going to do about Emma. Poor magically impaired, confused about everything because of the woman she loves, Emma.

"She reverts to this world's politics when she doesn't know how to handle things…" Ruby said.

"Yeah, and your best friend getting with your daughter isn't exactly something that this world smiles at…" Ellie looked at her mother, "What do we do, Mom?"

Regina inhaled, "First. We tell her that you are going to bring your new girlfriend that gives you the hickies to dinner." She looked pointedly to Ruby to tell her that she didn't want to see a hickie on her darling daughter's neck again before continuing, "We will send Daisy, Logan, Hunter and Billie to Henry and Brendon's or your grandparents for the night, or split them up between the two households." She pointed to her daughter, "You, little miss will stay with your mother and at the house the rest of the week. No sneaking off to be with your girlfriend, but more coddling your Momma." She gave a pointed look to Ellie then Ruby, "You will come to dinner on Friday." She turned back to her daughter, "And even though I know you are your mother's daughter and will want to pick her up, you will not let your mother out of your site and you will not let her get any gun, knife, sword, axe, crossbow, arrow, chain, hook, or weapon of any kind. When Ruby comes, I will sit with her the few seconds it will take to answer the door to make sure she doesn't have anything hidden and will try to pull anything out. Then… We'll see what happens."

"But what if she's really mad?" Ruby asked.

"Well, I will be sure to wear her favorite dress on me that night and show extra affection her throughout the day, and we will definitely be having sex before we change for the evening."

Ellie's face contorted with disgust, but before she could comment, Ruby took her mother's hand, "Good! That's good! Sex-filled Emma is a happy Emma."

Ellie looked wide-eyed at her girlfriend, "Why do you know that?"

"Well, darling, before she was your girlfriend, she helped your mother and I realize our feelings for each other and fought for us to be together. Really, you should thank her for that because without your girlfriend, you wouldn't be born." Regina smirked, "I'm gonna like saying things like that." She looked to Ruby, "Look how red I can make my daughter."

Ruby was blushing too.

"Oh and you!" Regina laughed, "Well…" She looked around, "I assume that your mother is out?"

"Yeah, she was making a call about a disturbance in a neighborhood. I think Pongo's puppies found something in Mrs. Shoemaker's rose bushes."

"No she's not." Ruby's ear was perked.

Ellie heard it too, "No she's not anymore…"

Regina shook her head, knowing she had a couple minutes, "You two poof out of here, and take your lunch. I will… start the celebration so to speak…"

"Ew!" Ellie took Ruby's hand and grabbed her lunch before poofing out of the station.

Regina took off her coat and snapped her fingers to change into her former mayoral, power pencil skirt, heels that made her ass and legs look delicious and a white shirt that would show her red bra at a single glance. When Emma opened and closed the main office door, Regina sauntered to the inner office doorway and leaned against it, waiting on her wife to notice her.

Emma looked up from the Kuerig as she waited for the water to heat. She looked her wife up and down and smiled, "Hey, hey, good lookin'." She walked over to her and wrapped her arms around her waist, "Why are you all dressed up?" She leaned down and started nipping at her wife's neck.

"Oh, I just wasn't feeling sexy, so I thought I'd dress in clothes I wore over twenty years ago, you know… When you were on me like a leech." Emma pulled from her neck and looked at Regina who only smirked, "And look at that. It took all of two seconds for you to notice me and start the foreplay."

"Well that's not fair. You know I would always be happy to start the foreplay, I just need to know when you want me to." The blonde once again suctioned herself to her wife's neck.

Regina grinned when Emma's hands slid to her ass, "Oh Darling, you know I love it when you do that. With the hands and the biting."

"I do know." Something snapped inside Emma and she pulled up and whipped around. "Where's Ellie?"

"She went to her secret girlfriend's. I told her to."

"What? Secret… Why? Why when she was finally around again did you do that?" Emma asked in an almost accusatory way. "Secret girlfriend? The hickie giver?"

"Because she told me that she wanted us to meet her girlfriend." Regina wrapped her arms around her wife's neck and held in the smirk that came when Emma's hands automatically went to her ass.

Emma saw the smirk despite Regina's best efforts to hide it, "You know I can't live without your ass…" She gave a firm squeeze to emphasize her point.

"I know." Regina pecked the blonde's lips, "I told her to go spend time with her today and time with us the rest of the week, maybe tell us a little about her and all of that because we have missed her. She gave her usual grunt of acknowledgment not unlike her mother, gave me a kiss on the cheek and poofed out of here. Then I looked out the window to see you pull up, and decided that I would dress up for you and maybe we could have a little afternoon delight."

Emma gave her wife a happy closed-mouth smile, "I love afternoon delight."

"Yes, I know." Regina said with a matching grin.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"Ellie?" Emma looked at her daughter that Friday afternoon as they sat at the kitchen table and colored in their respective geometric coloring books.

"Yeah, Momma?"

Emma stared at her a moment, "You know that you're perfect, right?"

Ellie looked up, but refused to look at her mother.

"You are." Emma looked around checking to make sure that no one was around, which they weren't because Regina took Logan, Daisy, Hunter and Billie to the grandparents for a bit before she was going to send Logan and Daisy to Henry and Brendon's and Hunter and Billie to stay with said grandparents'. She looked back to her daughter, "I know that I'm not supposed to have a favorite kid, but I do."

Ellie whipped her head to her mother, "Momma!"

"What?!" Emma scrunched her face like she was offended at Ellie's scolding, "Henry has more than made up for it by now, but once tried to keep your mother and me apart, Daisy is far too self-absorbed, Hunter… Okay, I just don't understand half the things he says anymore and he's always drumming or strumming the air which is weird but cute, and Billie is still an annoying preteen that thinks she's got it all figured out, but doesn't."

Ellie hid her smirk, "Momma, you're an annoying preteen that thinks she's got it all figured out but doesn't."

"Shut up!" Emma pushed her daughter lightly in the chair. She then turned to her and sobered completely. "Seriously, Ellie." Emma smiled, "You have no idea how amazing you are because your mother and me failed to acknowledge it. You do nothing for yourself, and when you finally start, I freak out and think it's something bad and then convince your mother of the same." She paused to swallow, "You're my favorite because you are so unique and so kind and so helpful and so amazing. And I'm sorry you didn't know it growing up."

Ellie bit her lip and inhaled raggedly through her nose, "It's okay, Momma."

"It's not. But thank you for forgiving me." Emma leaned in and hugged her daughter. Then after a few moments, she spoke again, "Your mom told me you want to be a surgeon and that's why you're getting that double major." Ellie nodded in her mother's hold, "You should drop Criminal Justice." Emma murmured before kissing her daughter's hair, "It's too much strain on you and you don't have to do it for me. Another person will eventually fill my shoes. It doesn't have to be my own flesh and blood. Though your grandfather certainly wouldn't mind seeing as he comes from a land of kings and queens and rightful thrones and still thinks a single family should stay in charge…" They chuckled together, "But you should do what you want to do. Okay?"

Ellie nodded, "Okay." She whispered.

Regina made her presence known, "What's going on in here?" She asked when she saw her wife and her daughter sitting, hugging in what had to be an awkwardly uncomfortable position.

"NOTHING, REGINA! GOD!" Emma glared to her wife as she and her daughter separated, "It's bonding time for Emma and Ellie. That's what you said; that's what we're doing."

Regina raised a single brow in response.

"I love you." Emma jumped up, knowing she was in trouble, "I'm sorry!"

Regina began walking away.

"No! Baby-honey! I'm sorry! I love you!" The blonde chased after her wife, leaving her daughter to their coloring pages.

Regina turned swiftly and pushed her wife into the wall once safely in the hall, "You prepared to make it up to me?" She whispered huskily into the blonde's ear.

Emma both melted in want and stiffened in suspicion. "What's your game, woman? Why are you letting me get by with snapping at you? And giving me sex?"

"Darling…" Regina smirked, "I have needs and desires too."

Emma took about a half second to think it over before she pushed her wife off of her and moved to the doorway in the kitchen, "Hey, Ellie, Sweet Pea…?"

Ellie turned around to give her mother her attention.

"You're mom and I are going to go… uh, talk… for a little while, 'kay?" Emma smiled innocently though everyone knew she was anything but.

"Yeah… Okay." She moved to the kitchen doorway to look at her brunette mother, "I'm gonna go out then, for a bit." She made a disgusted face as she poofed out of the house.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ruby was pacing in the back of the diner. She was nervous. Super nervous. She saw Snow, Charming, Hunter and Billie coming and that made her even more nervous than she was. So, she ran to the back. Ellie smirked as she appeared and grinned when Ruby ran into her.

"Puppy!" Ruby hugged her close, "What are you doing here? I thought you were with your Momma?"

Ellie scrunched her face a little in disgust, "Yeah, Mom's got Momma uh…. Indisposed."

Ruby smirked, "Is she—?"

"Yes. And don't finish the sentence."

Ruby laughed, "So you came to visit me?"

"I did. Why are you in the back pacing?"

"I saw your grandparents and sister and brother coming for lunch…"

Ellie grinned, "Did you get nervous?"

"Yes!" Ruby hissed as if ashamed.

"You don't need to be nervous. Ruby… Everyone loves you."

Ruby looked up at her, "But do they love me with you?"

Ellie pursed her lips and waited for Ruby's eyes to lock with hers, "They will. And if they don't, I love you with me. And my Mom loves you with me. She told me. And she will convince the rest of them to love you with me."

Ruby gave her a shy grin and leaned up for a kiss. "What do I do about your family now?"

"Um… serve them food because this is a place of food and you are a waitress?" Ellie asked like it should be obvious. But when she received an unimpressed look, she quickly tried to change her tune, "I mean… I love you?"

"Just like your mother…" Ruby leaned into her and kissed her cheek.

"Hey, I learn from the best." Ellie tilted Ruby's chin and captured her lips in a gentle kiss, "You'll do fine. You're the only one working right now, so go out there before Granny comes back here and beats us up."

"Okay." Ruby pouted before trudging up to the front of the diner.

"Hey!" Ellie whispered and Ruby quickly turned and moved back to her girlfriend, "I love you."

"I love you too, Puppy." Ruby leaned in and pecked her three times before sighing and making her way to the front for real.

Ellie grinned before poofing back to her house in vain hope that her mothers would be done… talking.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ruby walked out just as Granny was walking in to find her, "There you are, girl. Where have you been?"

"I was sorting in the back." The brunette provided easily.

Granny leaned in and sniffed smelling the other wolf on her, "I'm sure." She grunted before going to the kitchen.

Ruby shook her head and walked over, "Hello everyone… This is a random collection of family…"

Billie nodded, "Yeah, Mom and Momma are meeting Ellie's girlfriend." She gave her a face like it was the biggest news since Regina and Emma found out they were pregnant with her.

Ruby gave a shocked face, "Wow, really? I didn't know she was dating someone… Go Ellie…" She smiled.

Billie looked disappointed, "You're not even kind of jealous?"

Ruby knit her brows, like she would have two months before at the question, "What?"

Hunter hit his sister's arm and Billie realized what she said, "Nothing! Never mind."

Ruby slowly nodded before taking everyone's drink order and walking away.

It was as the foursome was on dessert that Snow got up from her place and walked over to the diner counter where Ruby was leaning. She smiled to the werewolf and offered her hand.

Ruby looked at it confused but took it nevertheless, "Snow?... Everything alright?"

"Yeah, great!" Snow nodded, "What about you? How are you doing? You nervous?"

"Nervous?" Ruby was _so_ nervous. "What do I have to be nervous about?"

"Well, it's not everyday that you meet your girlfriend's parents… as your girlfriend's girlfriend." She paused and let it sink in Ruby's head before smiling, "And it's not everyday your-best-friend-slash-your-daughter's-best-friend -slash-your-former-arch-nemesis'-best-friend comes out to your daughter about dating your granddaughter…"

"Snow!" Ruby pulled from her.

Snow put her hands out to calm the longhaired girl, "Calm down." She said with a friendly smile.

"Calm down?" Ruby leaned back into the counter, "How did you _know_!"

Snow smirked, "I know my best friend. And I know my best friend when she's in love. And I had never seen my granddaughter act like she had when she was around you for that family breakfast last week, or the two months before…" She grinned, "I think it's great. I think Ellie as grown up to be the perfect match for you…" She grabbed Ruby's hand and squeezed it lovingly, "Don't be nervous about tonight. I mean, be nervous, but not because of the specific situation, just the meeting-the-parents situation in general." She winked before walking back to her table.

Ruby sighed before turning to the kitchen, "Gran?"

"What, girl?"

"I'm going home."

Granny gave her a knowing look, "Alright."

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


	8. Chapter 8

Ellie, Emma and Regina were sitting in the living room. Regina was in Emma's favorite dress leaning into her wife on the couch. Emma was in slacks and a shirt with no back—Regina's favorite. And Ellie was in a plaid button up, jeans, tie and vest.

Emma began stroking the top of her wife's knee after the brunette crossed her leg over hers, and Regina was running her fingers through her lover's hair. Ellie sat on the chair closest to the door.

Everyone was silent. The only noise heard was the ticking of the clock and the slight wind and crickets outside. Ellie heard Ruby's car in the distance and started getting antsy. She stood and began pacing.

"Should I check dinner?" She looked to her brunette mother.

"Dinner is fine. It's keeping warm." Regina tried to calm her, but also knew she couldn't get up in case her wife tried to sneak somewhere to find a weapon of some kind.

Emma sat forward, "Can't I just—?"

"No!" Both Ellie and Regina said.

Emma put her hands up in surrender, "Okay!" She leaned back against the couch, once again stroking her wife's knee.

Ellie turned to the door and a moment later, the shutting of a car door could be heard. She walked to the door and stood outside to wait.

"Wow…" Emma turned to her wife, "She's got that sixth sense thing like you and me, and my mom and dad…"

Regina held in her actual response, "She's got… something…" She moved blonde hair out of her way and placed a tender kiss on Emma's neck.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ruby smiled when Ellie came out of the door, "Hey, Puppy."

"Hi, Baby." Ellie smiled back wide and waited for her girlfriend to climb the steps. Then, with open arms, she hugged her tight, "I love you."

"I love you too."

Ellie pulled back and grinned, "Yeah." She nodded then glared to the door.

"You know I can hear what your moms are saying too? Let's go inside and get it over with."

Ellie turned with surprise on her face, "You sure? Because… this afternoon…"

Ruby nodded, "Yeah… Your grandmother knows… that, for some weird reason calmed me down."

Ellie kept her puzzled look in place as she offered her girlfriend her hand, "Shall we?"

"We shall."

~0~0~0~0~0~

"WHY! Why won't you let me go to the door?"

"Because I can't trust you to not have ninja stars or something worse hidden around any nook or cranny in this house! You are not pulling a weapon on this girl!"

"Why nooooooot?" Emma whined, "I just wanna make sure she's good enough!"

"She is good enough. She's perfect."

Emma stared at her wife, "You say this like you know her."

"I might have popped in on her and Ellie at the station instead of just Ellie earlier this week."

Emma stood from the couch with an exaggerated gasp, "Oh! My! God!"

"Darling, sit down…" Regina rolled her eyes and looked to the side.

The blonde gave her wife a glare and moved to the seat caddy-corner to the couch. She moved it a bit so that she would be facing her wife on the couch dead-on, sat down with crossed arms and legs and glared.

"Darling—"

"No!" Emma didn't look to the brunette. She didn't have time to get her next sassy comment out either because the door opened. She watched her daughter walk into the room holding hands with Ruby Lucas. Her best friend, the person that knows all of her secrets besides Regina. Her face didn't react. She stared blankly at the other woman as Regina stood from the couch and came to sit on the arm of her chair. She stared blankly as Ellie poofed her coat and purse to the closet. And she stared blankly as the pair sat down. Then she had Ruby's eyes. They stared intently at each other.

Ellie looked to her brunette mother for help. She checked the clock and after five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact between her girlfriend and her mother—in dead silence aside from that ticking clock, mind you—she couldn't handle it anymore, "Momma?" She daringly broke the quiet.

Emma didn't look to her daughter, she only stared at Ruby before standing up.

Ruby matched the blonde, ready to faceoff or run away if need be.

Emma took a step forward and opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of her wife's voice stopped her. "Remember that I am much older than you, technically speaking, darling."

Ellie followed her brunette mother suit, "Her age doesn't matter; you know that, Momma."

"Remember how we were pulled apart because of someone too close to both of us…"

At this remark from her wife, she whipped her head and stared fiercely, "I never forget that." She swallowed hard before turning back to the pair. She walked all the way to her best friend so they were mere inches from each other. "You didn't hurt her." Her face finally broke into a smile and she gave the werewolf and big bear hug, "You didn't hurt her."

Ruby suddenly felt a wave of tears flood over her, "I promise that I will never hurt her."

"And you don't make promises you can't keep, right?"

"Right." Ruby smiled into her friend's hug as it tightened.

"Good." Emma sighed.

Daisy was the first of a long trail of people to come in from the kitchen.

"That's it?!" She cried, interrupting the moment, hands on her hips.

Ellie, Ruby, Regina and Emma all watched with wide eyes as the entire family, including Granny, came in from the kitchen.

"That was the biggest let down in all dating history of your children, Momma!" The younger blonde shook her head, "I mean, where's the drama? There were no knives, or shotguns…" She gave her blonde mother a pointed look, "Which you were all too happy to bring out just a week ago, Momma… And there was no 'I'll kick your ass,' no threatening tone of any kind!"

"What the hell are you," Emma looked to everyone as she took notice of them, "Your sister, brothers, brother-in-law, grandparents, boyfriend and Granny all doing here?!"

Ellie crossed her arms and glared at her sister, "And how did you give me and Ruby and our noses no indicators that you were all there?"

Daisy rolled her eyes, "We bugged the place, I magnified the bugs to sound like we were in the room, and then I magicked the diner door to the pantry door so we could make an entrance… Well, I magicked the diner door when I'd had enough of the mushy, I-love-you-and-you-love-my-daughter-ness." She again glared at her blonde mother. Before turning and walking to Ruby with a smile, "Welcome to the family, _Miss Ruby_."

Ruby let out a guffaw as she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's neck and held her tight.

Daisy smirked at this reaction and giggled when her twin gave her a glare.

"I forgot you used to call me that!" Ruby kissed Ellie's cheek, whose only reaction was to blush and turn away.

"Yeah, yeah…" Ellie saw her older brother and brother-in-law come over.

"You finally got her!" Henry smiled as he hugged his sister.

"Sooner or later I was going to have to smack you over the head with a frying pan…" Brendon looked at Ruby after giving her a hug.

Ruby smirked at her girlfriend's brother's husband as he hugged his sister-in-law in congratulations, "Yeah, well, I wish you had…" She said jokingly, but her tone carried a sad sense of seriousness as well as she reached her hand out and squeezed when her girlfriend took it.

Hunter and Billie came over soon after the oldest moved on to the moms to ask about their reactions.

Billie glared to Ruby and crossed her arms to show her anger.

Ellie stared at her sister a moment; she glanced to her twin, still standing with them who shrugged unknowing before looking back to the youngest sibling, "Billie…? What's this? Why are you mad?"

"You lied to me!" The youngest ignored her sister and kept her glare on the werewolf.

Ruby realized what the 12-year-old was talking about. "I'm sorry, Bill…"

Ellie knit her brows, "The hell'd you lie to my sister about?"

Billie answered for them both, "I told her earlier today that Mom and Momma were going to meet your girlfriend and she said she didn't know you were dating anyone and she was happy for you and she lied to me!"

Ellie gave a single nod in understanding, "Yes, well… Billie, we promised each other were weren't going to say anything to anyone until we told the parents…"

Billie glared to her sister. She didn't look at Ruby as she hugged her briefly to show her excitement for them, but her determination to stay angry was winning her pre-teen mind over. "She still lied." She said as she hugged her sister and waited for her brother to do the same.

"I'm glad it was you and not one of the prostitutes selling drugs Momma thought it was." Hunter said while he hugged Ruby.

Ruby kept a blank face as she looked to her ladylove, "She thought I was a drug-selling prostitute?"

Ellie pursed her lips, "Did I forget to mention…?" she pulled on her collar.

"Gotta go!" Hunter interrupted the conversation before he and Billie ran from the couple.

Logan interrupted quickly, "I overheard and thought now would be a good time to interrupt…" He said as winked to his girlfriend, telling her he knew he was helping her twin out and he was going to get bonus points for it.

Ellie looked at him in shock, "Logan!" She hugged him tight, "Dude! I love you so much! I think she's going to murder me because of my moms!" She whispered in his ear.

"Yeah, well… I'm here to help. Get in good with the fam…" He chuckled.

"You're in!" Ellie said as she pulled away, "If you need a plan or whatever to talk to them about popping the question, I'm your girl."

Logan gave her a winning grin and nodded, telling her that he'd take that to heart. Then he looked to his girlfriend, "Shall we see what your mothers are saying?" He offered his arm.

"We shall!" Daisy took his arm and they dramatically skipped as if they were following the yellow brick road to Oz.

Ellie looked at her girlfriend after watching their display, "If anything it's not an insult to you but to me."

"What? Why you and not me?" Ruby crossed her arms.

Ellie placed delicate hands on Ruby's hips, "Because they thought that my taste in women besides you would be prostitutes… and not even the good, Julia Roberts kind, but the drug-addled mind kind."

Ruby pouted for her girlfriend, "Well that is an insult to you."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry, what's an insult to my granddaughter?" Charming asked as he, Snow and Granny came over.

"Nothing, Gramps… Nothing you want to know, at least."

Charming gave her a look, telling her he'd find out anyways, but Snow interrupted, "Us grandparents just wanted to come and greet the happy couple." She said gesturing to Granny, Charming and herself.

~0~0~0~0~0~

After getting riddled with questions from the children and pulling away from them and their conspiracy theories on the matters—and Daisy's insistence that Emma use ninja stars or something the like during dessert, Regina and Emma settled in their own little corner.

Regina held her blonde lover of just over 25 years close, "I really thought you were going to lose it."

"Nah… I've had plenty of time to cool down and digest it."

"You've known?" Regina's face exuded shock.

"Of course I've known." Emma gave a face like it was a stupid question.

"How long?"

"Since the night I snuck out after Ellie got in that fight with Mason." She knit her brows, "Except I didn't realize I knew it then until after I started freaking out. I wasn't freaking out about what I thought I was freaking out about, I was freaking out about the fact that she was sneaking around with our best friend."

Regina knit her brows, "How could you have possibly known the night you snuck out?"

"Well… For starters, I know when someone is lying to me. I knew that Ruby was lying about what they talked about." She said first and foremost, then gave more evidence to her unconscious knowledge of the two, "Plus her lipstick was a smidge smeared, plus, plus, I saw Ellie's smoke cloud forming in the back when I walked in. Though, I didn't realize that's what it was then, but over time, after the initial freaking out and all of that…I understood."

"And you didn't tell your wife why?" Regina asked after hitting the blonde's shoulder lightly.

"Because you didn't know I snuck out." Emma shrugged.

"But I did…"

Emma nodded, "I know, but you didn't confront me on it or tell me I was in trouble…"

"Because I knew you were worried and were letting off steam!"

Emma's nod turned sarcastic as she shrugged, "And the one time you decide to let it slide you don't find out what I've known all along."

"Why didn't you tell me, for real?"

"Because I knew that if I did then the both of us sure as hell wouldn't be able to keep it together around them. We'd be like we are when we get the kids exactly what they want for their birthdays and they're opening it and we're rocking in our seats and tell them what it is before they're done unwrapping… And they needed time together to figure it all out. And I needed time to figure it out and be okay with it because I was rather angry and brooding, but only because I didn't know what I actually did know."

Regina playfully glared, "I can't believe you've known subconsciously that long. I only knew from the night of the hickie on… Of course when I caught them at the station, I was shocked to finally see it and when they thought that shock was shock of them, I had to play along."

Emma chuckled, "You would have to play along. It's that forever sassy part of the old evil queen that never left you that I love."

Regina grinned and nodded, "The evil queen really was quite sassy."

"She was." Emma kissed her wife.

Overhearing the entire conversation, Ellie and Ruby, who had been talking with the grandparents looked at each other with confused eyes. Ruby patted her girlfriend's shoulder before walking over to her girlfriend's mothers and her best friends. "You've both known for a long time but didn't tell anyone? For both Ellie and my sakes?" They looked to one another before nodding, and Ruby held them tight, "I love you both."

"We love you too, Ruby." Regina assured.

Emma nodded along, "Yeah. And at Thanksgivings and Christmases, we'll be sure that there is plenty of non-chocolaty dessert. Assuming that rule applies to werewolves…"

"Well, thanks… I mean, I'll only need a sliver of something anyways…" Ruby smiled.

Regina and Emma looked at each other with a chuckle in their throats before Emma turned back to her daughter's girlfriend, "Have you met our daughter?"

Regina was quick to add, "She is the brunette replica of this one here, but I think her appetite is actually a little larger."

Emma was nodding along with her wife, "Yeah! Especially now that she's half dog running around, sniffing butts—OH MY GOD!" She almost screamed in excitement, "I just realized that I _do_ have a puppy!" Emma grinned wide as she squeezed her wife's hand before she looked across the living room to see Ellie's head whip around and cheeks flush bright pink.

Ruby was blushing a bit as well as she leaned in, "Yeah, if you don't mind _not_ calling her a puppy, that would be super."

Emma stared her friend down, "I don't want to know, do I?"

"Well, it started the first night of her first wolf's week…" Ruby started, "She turned into a puppy the first night and the next morning when we changed back, well, I couldn't keep my hands off her because she was so damn cute. And, I just started calling her my puppy because she is my puppy, but I mainly call her my puppy in a flirty voice that let's her know that she's gonna be a happy puppy…"

Emma blinked about five times with that same blank face she'd used earlier. She turned to her wife, "Regina, I want a damn puppy that I can call my puppy, and it won't be anything _sick_," She gave a pointed glare to Ruby, "Or, you know, remind her of the sweet, sweet, _puppy love_ she'll get from her girlfriend…"

Ruby giggled and muttered, "Puppy love."

Regina on the other hand patted her wife's shoulder comfortingly as she let her down, "Maybe in a few years, when all the kids are gone and we both have empty nest syndrome, then we'll get you another dog."

Emma shook her head, "No. Now."

Regina raised a perfectly plucked brow and gave the blonde a look that dared her to defy her—a look she perfected first as mayor, second as wife and third as mother, "Excuse me? Now?"

"Okay, sounds good. Let's ditch these losers, go get the puppy and come home." Emma looked at her wife as she spoke, "I'm sure they'll still be here—Please don't put me on the couch tonight!"

"We will wait to get you another dog until Billie is sixteen at least."

"Haha! Two years!"

"Four years." Ruby put up four regretful fingers for the blonde to count.

"Four years?!" Emma looked from either brunette then over to her youngest, "Billie Baby?"

Billie skipped over to her mother, "Yes, Momma?"

"When will you be sixteen?"

"Four years."

"God damn it!" Emma stomped her foot.

Billie looked at the other two women, then back to her blonde mother, "Momma, are you okay?"

"I want a damn puppy!" The blonde began pouting.

"Oh, Lord. Here we go!" Regina muttered as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Darling?" She spoke clearly but didn't grace her wife with her brown orbs.

"What?"

"We will discuss this later. Tonight. I promise, but you need to stop whining like a six-year-old. Now is hardly an appropriate time."

"Fine." Emma and Regina stared each other down before Emma slowly leaned into her wife's space and whispered, "But I want a damn puppy!" She kissed her wife's cheek like she'd just apologized and with a smirk, she walked over to her daughter and parents and Granny.

Ruby turned back to Regina, "Are you going to let her have a puppy? She's been pretty adamant…"

"She goes in modes. She's wanted a puppy on and off since Trusty died, and I don't know if the lack of new dog says anything about how serious she has been about really getting a new dog or not… But it should."

"That's true, but she might not let up now that Ellie is half werewolf half witch and all her mother's daughter…"

Regina nodded, "That's what I am afraid of…" She sighed, "We're going to get another dog..." She looked over to her wife who questioned Ellie then turned around with a victorious smile.

"Puppy!" Emma mouthed and smirked.

Regina glared playfully before announcing to the room, "Who hasn't had dinner? Shall we eat?"

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


	9. Epilogue

Epilogue

Ellie moved in with her girlfriend about a month after they told Emma and Regina they were together. Over the last two years, Billie started going to high school. Hunter filled out from lanky to lean; he was the epitome of Reid at the ripe age of 16.

Daisy got married and Ellie proposed. Daisy opened her store and it was the place that every young to middle-aged adult now went to shop for clothes. Ellie dropped the second major and minor and graduated with a degree in Biology; she got accepted into the medical program at Storybrooke U where she was now studying the anatomy of not only humans, but every creature allowed into Storybrooke so the hospital would be able to handle any and all emergencies. Needless to say, both of the twins were very happy.

Ellie and Ruby made plans to meet up with the family at the Miner's Day activities. Their hands were laced as they lazily drifted through the mass of people and looked from booth to booth. They had passed by Tiny and Leroy arguing about something beanstalk related; their heads were still turned when someone ran into Ellie's shoulder.

Thinking she had done the running into, she turned quickly, "Oh, I'm sorry—Oh." She growled as she took in who it was. Her fangs lengthened and had she fully changed to her wolf, her fur would have stood on end.

"Mason!" Ruby held tight to her girlfriend to keep her at bay. They had only run into him twice since that first fight, and since that first fight they had gotten into two more fights. "Come on, Puppy." She tried to pull Ellie along.

Mason laughed an evil laugh, "Yeah, 'Puppy,' run along with that slut you call a girlfriend."

Ellie halted. Her breathing heavy, her jaw tightened, her eyes glaring.

Ruby tried to pull on Ellie's arm, but the girl wouldn't move, "Puppy…" She whispered and stared to her with big blue, worry-filled eyes, "No. Please. We talked about this. No more fights."

Ellie didn't look to her girlfriend. She knew if she did, she would listen to her. Instead she turned around to Mason, "Call her a slut one more time." It wasn't a request, but a dare.

Ruby quickly maneuvered her way in front of Ellie and held her back as a crowd started to gather. She turned to Mason, "Walk away, Mason. It's not worth getting your ass kicked for the what will this be, the fourth time?"

"Piss off!" He spat to his ex.

Ruby glared at him, "You know, Mason, I've tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I am tired of you acting like the one that got scorned. It's been two years since _you_ broke it off with _me_. You don't get to be angry and brooding. It doesn't suit you. It's actually rather annoying, and I swear to God, if you keep provoking my girlfriend, I will let her go and you will get yet another broken nose. Stop now before your nose gets worse than Owen Wilson's."

"I don't get to be angry and brooding? You're the one that was cheating on me; fucking your bitch behind my back."

Ruby stood there, holding Ellie back as she took in what Mason said. "Oh my God. You are a fucking idiot." She rolled her eyes and let her girlfriend go.

Before Mason could blink he was pinned to the ground.

Hunter, Billie, Emma and Regina walked over and pushed their way through the crowd. Emma had a two-year-old bloodhound on a short leash.

"What happened this time?" Regina asked the brunette.

"He called me a slut and accused me of cheating on him when we were together… and he called her a bitch." Ruby crossed her arms and watched the two roll around; she knew that Ellie was going light and not using her wolf strength, "Puppy don't go easy!" Billie, Hunter, Emma and Regina all looked at her with blank faces, "What? He was being mean! And! And, he sought us out!"

The young hound began barking and growling and pulling, willing his human to let him go as he watched his humans' puppy, the one that smells like a real puppy, fight.

"Cooper!" Emma tugged on the leash, telling him to stop.

Cooper looked with his naturally sad and adorable eyes to his human and back to her puppy then back to her.

Emma gave Cooper a pitying look, "Coop, sit. She's fine." The blonde looked back up to the fight at hand, "Hey Ellie! Time to stop!"

Logan and Daisy walked over with Henry and Brendon trailing behind them, "Aww! But we just got here…" Logan whined, wanting to see the fight as if it were expected entertainment.

Ellie pushed up from Mason, after gaining the upper hand and pushed him further into the ground. She glared at him, daring him to continue before she stood and walked to her family.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Ruby took Ellie to the diner to get cleaned up. Hunter came as well, just to get away from the hustle and bustle.

"Hunter?" Ellie asked as her fiancée took her hand and put it in the healing serum Regina had taught her future daughter-in-law to make.

"Yeah?" Hunter turned from staring out the window to his sister.

"What's up with you?"

The young man squirmed in his seat, "What? What do you mean?"

"You are more quiet and broody than usual. You're way less talkative and scolding of Billie, too…"

"What just because I stop yelling at Billie something's wrong?"

Ruby and Ellie glanced to each other before Ruby spoke deadpan, "Yeah…"

"Nothing is wrong."

"Something's different, if not wrong…" Ellie said. She tried to lean forward, but her fiancée took her face, preventing her from doing anything as the waitress cleaned her face.

Hunter watched the two. He glanced out to his other older sister and her husband, his older brother and his husband, then his eyes wandered to find his parents and grandparents, "I want what all of you guys have… We're a family of unbridled love, adoration, devotion… I want it to be my turn…"

Ellie chuckled, "It is… if we're going in order from oldest to youngest…"

Hunter shook his head, "Billie has a boyfriend."

"She's fourteen… Do you know how many 'boyfriends' Daisy had by the time we were fourteen?" Hunter shook his head, "Like… ninety-seven… Something ridiculous. The point is… You will find her—him?"

Hunter shook his head again, "Her." He said answering her question.

"You will find her and you will know it's her when you do."

Ruby stared at her fiancée's brother a moment, "Puppy, I don't think that's the problem…" She said as she sat down and looked at the young man. "What's her name?"

Hunter sighed, "Ainsley."

"Ainsley. That sounds like a pretty girl's name. Is she pretty?" Ellie asked with a knowing smile.

"Breathtaking."

Ruby was squirming in her seat over how adorable Hunter was, "He said, 'breathtaking!'" She hit her fiancée's arm and cuddled her side.

"I know. I heard him. I am right here too." Ellie said sarcastically before looking back to her brother, "Listen, and listen with an open mind and realize that I am speaking from my own personal experience…." She took in a deep breath and sighed it out, "Tell her before it starts to hurt. I'm not saying tell her tonight, but tell her before it becomes physically painful to be around her…" She looked up to him, "You'll feel it when it begins to happen… and if you do wait that long, tell her anyways… She just might love you as much as you love her…"

"I'm not _in love_ with her!" Hunter said seriously.

"Then why are you so low and moody and broody?" Ellie asked him.

"And why are the three of us sitting in the closed diner on Miner's Day talking about her and you wanting to have what we have?" Ruby added on to her fiancée's words without missing a beat.

Hunter gave either woman a hard look, "I hate you both."

"Just because we're awesome." Ellie smiled as he stood and walked away.

Ruby grinned as he pulled open the door and turned to the other girl, "And we're right." Ellie nodded and leaned in, kissing her fiancée.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Daisy, Ellie, Ruby and Logan were walking slowly to where the rest of the family was claiming their spot for fireworks. Ellie and Ruby both stopped and turned.

"What? What now?" Daisy asked after realizing her husband was the only one with her. They walked back to the other couple, "What are we looking at?"

Ellie pointed with her head, "He's totally beating out the competition!"

"Hunter? Wait… what's going on? He likes that girl?" Daisy asked as she watched her little brother rub the back of his neck and avoid eye-contact as he talked with a beautiful little high school girl.

"Yeah. Now, shut up! I'm trying to listen!" Ellie gave her sister a look.

The four watched on. They watched Hunter take a deep resolute breath and look Ainsley in the eyes as he spoke. They watched a small, 'he's adorable, I love him' smile grow on her face as she watched him look around at everything but her, and they watched her hide it when he looked at her. They watched a sentimental, 'this just got serious' smile grow on her face as she looked down and back up to the tall boy. They watched Ainsley take his face in her hand and nod as she leaned in to kiss his cheek and they watched them hug intimately.

"Awe!" Ruby wrapped her arms tightly around Ellie's neck.

"What?!" Daisy wanted to know.

"Yeah! What happened?" Logan, the tall, bulky, low-voiced, intimidating, Thor-and-McSteamy-like man jumped up and down like his wife in the same whiny tone.

"He was just trying to talk with her at first; he was nervous and he squeaked a couple times."

"Naturally." Logan sobered and stroked his trimmed, short beard.

"Then he paused and said, 'There's something I've been wanting to ask you for a long time…'" Ruby held tighter to her fiancée.

"And she said, 'Then ask…' But you could tell she had a feeling as to what was coming and looked excited… her heart was racing…" Ellie shrugged.

Ruby nodded, "Then he sighed and was like, 'I've liked you since the first time I saw you, but you were dating Jackson. I'm not one to play dating games, to be a pawn in some sick game between you and him, and I don't want to be treated like a whipped dumbass, even if that's what I am. I want to be with you and if you let me, I'd like to show you what it's like to be with someone that cares about you and not about how you look.' Then he squeaked again and was like, 'Will you go on a date with me?' And she said yes!"

Ellie hugged Ruby closer to her, and turned around when she heard her brother's voice again. She saw a bigger guy—football player judging by his letterman jacket, but Hunter could take him if he needed to—she'd never been prone to fighting before that first fight with Mason, but things change. "Oh Hunt…" She whispered.

Ruby, Ellie, Logan and Daisy looked on. No one needed to know what was being said. They understood based on the body language.

Football-loser came between Ainsley and Hunter's hug. He started pushing Hunter back and Hunter stood his ground but refused to push back. Ainsley got between the two and told Loser off. Loser gave her a look and tried to take her hand, but she turned into Hunter. Hunter spoke and put himself between Loser and Ainsley. Loser acted as though he was going to punch Hunter, trying to scare him. Hunter did nothing in response. He didn't flinch; he only stood. Loser tried it again and the same thing happened. Then Loser actually tried to punch him. Hunter slapped his hand away, but didn't hit him in return. Loser stared on mystified for a moment that his fist never made contact before he grumbled and walked away. Hunter turned back to Ainsley and Ainsley hugged him close.

Ellie and Ruby suddenly heard Emma's voice, "Hey, so, I don't know what you four are doing standing there, looking like idiots for, but grab your sister and brother-in-law and get your asses over here. And find Hunter."

Ruby turned to Ellie who only shook her head, "We need to get to the blanket before the fireworks…" Ruby said.

"Yeah, Momma said so."

Daisy rolled her eyes, "She likes your super-hearing too much. She has too much fun…"

Ellie slacked behind Logan and her fiancée with her sister, "You have no idea… If she knows that me and Ruby are at the station for lunch, before she comes back, as soon as she pulls up, she starts saying what she's doing and tells us that there is no excuse for her to walk in on any funny business. And she does the same thing if she and Mom come over for dinner…"

Daisy pursed her lips as they neared the family, "Yeah… that could be my fault… They've uh… they've walked in on Logan and me doing… stuff…"

Ruby stopped and turned, "Stuff, what kind of stuff? Dirty stuff?" She looked to Logan then gave him a wink, "Way to go, sailor."

"Hey!" Ellie did not like Ruby pretend flirting with anyone, let alone someone she now called brother.

Ruby knew this about her fiancée and grinned wide when Ellie reached a hand out for her to take. They quickly found everyone else and settled on one of the many blankets distributed.

"Took you guys long enough! Say, where's Hunter?" Emma said as she counted the kids as they all settled.

The foursome smirked, "He uh… He won't be here for the fireworks…" Logan said before mumbling, "He'll be making his own!" He started laughing with Ruby and Ellie. Daisy however was unimpressed with her husband, so she hit his arm, "Ow! Hey!"

"You're a pig!" Daisy gave him a look. His only reaction was to begin making pig noises and he leaned into her and kissed her cheek. She grinned and held his fury chin so she could look at him, "But I love you."

Regina knit her brows, "Where is he?"

"He's with a girl…" Ruby provided.

"A girl you say?" Emma's ears perked and she lifted her head from her wife's stomach, causing Cooper to become interested and lift his head from Emma's stomach.

"Yes, a girl. She's adorable. Don't use weapons when you meet her." Ruby said seriously.

Emma pursed her lips, "I only do that to the boys…?"

"You only didn't do it to me because Ellie and Regina wouldn't let you."

Emma gave the girl a look, "Listen, I'm not gonna get in trouble before I do or don't do something if I say it the way I said it."

"Oh, I see…" Ruby shook her head and looked to Regina, "You're going to let her get away with that?"

"Yeah…" Regina shrugged, "I let her get away with just about anything nowadays… I mean, how long after you two came out to us did she get a dog? Not even a week?" She looked to the dog in question, who was looking back at her with sad eyes and floppy ears, "Yes, you, Coop." She reached out and pet his head then cupped his face. He turned his head and gave her hand a kiss in gratitude, "Oh, thank you!" Cooper's tail began wagging happily.

"Jeez, I wish that me…" Emma muttered from her spot in her wife's lap.

Regina smirked to Ruby before looking down, "Oh you do?" She ran her fingers through her wife's hair before cupping her face.

Emma nodded and pouted, "Uh huh."

Regina kissed her wife, "Well, I have news for you, darling."

"What?"

Billie had been watching and listening to the entire exchange. She decided it was her turn to chime in, seeing as she saw what just happened and was in high school and smart and could pick up on things, "You are Cooper." She said.

Emma looked to her daughter then back to her wife, "What?"

Regina was nodding along, "She's right. You are Cooper. Everything I did to Cooper, I did to you to make you feel better."

Emma gave her wife a blank look for a good 20 seconds, "Well… How come I don't get treats when I'm good?"

Regina gave her a look and leaned down to whisper, "I give you all kinds of treats when you're good. They're just not in the form of food… though sometimes you do get to eat."

Ellie groaned and started gagging, "Oh that was gross! Mom! Doggy-hearing! Warn a girl!"

Regina only smirked and shrugged before kissing her wife's cheek and cuddling closer.

Ellie felt provoked to do the same to Ruby and soon everyone else was cuddling their lover as well.

Billie looked around at her oldest brother and brother-in-law, her sisters and their significant others, her mothers, her grandparents. Then she looked to Cooper, "If Hunter gets his person, then it's just you and me until I get mine…"

**AN: Thoughts and feels?**


End file.
